Ratchet & Clank: Rise of the Uniposers
by Haydos271
Summary: Formerly titled "Finding Angela". Every villain Ratchet has fought returns, now as part of an alliance led by a shape-shifting creature who is simply referred to as "Master". Completed. RatchetxSashaxTalwyn. T for adult themes
1. The Secret of the Battleplex

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Angela Cross helped Ratchet & Clank defeat Captain Qwark on their second adventure, but mysteriously disappeared. However, reports have shown that she was last seen with Max Apogee on his ship, escaping from Emperor Percival Tachyon. Now, after the second defeat of Doctor Nefarious, the dynamic duo prepares to find her. The first clue, a Vullard spotted a ship like Max Apogee's in the Korthos Sector, heading to the Agorian Battleplex…_

_Chapter 1: The Secret of the Battleplex_

"Hurry up, Ratchet!" called out Clank who was sitting in Aphelion, fiddling around with the radio, looking for something to listen to. Aphelion was only the same platform it was when Ratchet was about to leave without Clank, but at the last second he joined him. They decided to look for adventure and then Ratchet wanted to find Angela, because she might've had knowledge about the Lombaxes disappearance. But Ratchet desperately hoped that they wouldn't be knocked off-course.

"Just a second, Clank," Ratchet replied, sitting in the seat next to him, with his legs up on the dashboard and now wearing his original mechanic suspenders, not bothering to wear his extremely tight and uncomfortable armour. "Sigmund is building us a tracking beam, so if we spot Angela, we can be able to know where she goes."

Clank finally settled on Pirate Radio, before hearing a whirring sound. He sat up straight and looked to the right, and saw Sigmund rolling along the ground, following the path towards the Aphelion, holding something in his hands, but Clank couldn't make it out. Once he stopped in front of the Aphelion, Clank was finally able to see the circular metal gizmo with a green circle screen.

"Here you go," said Sigmund, throwing the gizmo over to Ratchet, who caught it lazily and then saw that it was a tracking device, but currently wasn't activated, because they hadn't seen Angela within it's preparation.

"Thanks, Sigmund," said Ratchet as he studied the gizmo, before shrugging and placed it on his belt, next to some other items with no significance, making Clank think that they were just there to look pretty. "Hopefully we can track her down," he finished, frowning from thinking about anything that could have happened to her.

"Yes. and maybe recreate the Lombax species," replied Clank, with a cheeky grin on his face, before performing his trademark laugh along with Sigmund, who's laugh wasn't very pleasant.

Ratchet gave him an angry "no" look, before turning back to the steering wheel of Aphelion and turning the radio off, much to Clank's dismay. "Aphelion, please set us a course for the Agorian Battleplex. I'm sure you still have the co-ordinates."

"Affirmative, Ratchet," said the Aphelion, still with the upgraded "Hot Rod" paint job, in an unemotional female voice. "Did I also mention that I am having wet dreams about you?"

"That's just nice," said Ratchet sarcastically, feeling a little disgusted at a computer's fetishes. He started fiddling around with some of the buttons in preparation for take-off, but it wasn't really take-off as Aphelion was already floating on the ground. He still fired up the engines, and waited for Sigmund's goodbye.

"Oh, and sir," said Sigmund, pulling the Chronoscepter out of nowhere, along with a second one, and was surprisingly able to hold them both in one hand. "Take this." Sigmund threw one of the Chronoscepters with a bad aim over to Clank, but he managed to jump in the air and catch it before it fell off the Great Clock itself. "I have my own, you see?"

Clank quickly jumped back in the Aphelion and nodded at Sigmund, before waiting for Ratchet to fly Aphelion. It began to lift up a bit, and Clank waved to Sigmund, who shed a metallic tear from seeing his friend and co-worker leaving again, thinking that when he came back, he'd stay forever.

"Farewell!" yelled Sigmund, over to Clank who was getting even higher and higher, but was still looking over the edge and waving. Sigmund waved back at him before he pulled back inside Aphelion and Ratchet closed the top, and boosted the engines to higher level shooting away from the Great Clock, and Ratchet felt weird that it didn't have an atmosphere.

Ratchet looked over to the Great Clock from a distance, where he saw Sigmund smiling and waiting for Aphelion to move out of sight, and then turned back and travelled through the starry deep space, moving away from the centre of the universe.

Aphelion flew through the starry sky, knowing where to go because they had been to the Agorian Battleplex before, but if they had to go to an unknown planet, they would have to fly there manually. They travelled past many familiar planets, like Vapedia and Terachnos, and even an unknown green planet that looked similar to Orxon.

"Now entering Korthos Sector," announced Aphelion as Zanifar came into view in the distance, and Aphelion started turning to the left to make it's way to the Agorian Battleplex, while Ratchet and Clank started listening to the radio after much arguing on which station. They thought that the flight was going to be smooth, but they were wrong…

"Valkyrie ships detected." Aphelion saw a Valkyrie in an O2 Mask in the distance, riding on a floating pedestal which acted like a space scooter, and it was riding towards them, and then turned around to inform it's army.

"Oh, no," said Ratchet. "If we're going to avoid them, we are going to need to go into the asteroid field." He took control of Aphelion and turned off to the right into the asteroid field and the smaller Valkyrie space scooters followed them but most couldn't follow Aphelion's odd path and got crushed by asteroids. The bigger ships stayed on the side and fired missiles out of it's side, desperately trying to hit the Aphelion, but always crashed into an asteroid.

Yet one of the biggest ships charged up a group of energy missiles that weaved through obstacles and stayed locked on to their target, and when they looked like they'd exploded, they were shot out. The missiles tracked the Aphelion and weaved through the asteroids until they finally hit, smashing the engines and other functions. Aphelion's voice was cut out, the weapons no longer worked, parts were flying off, the engine was on fire and one more hit and the fuel would ignite and explode, killing them instantly.

A medium-sized ship suddenly warped and appeared out of nowhere, next to Zanifar and into the sector with a battalion of small fighters, all controlled by a computer. They fired their weapons at the Valkyrie army, destroying many of the smallest space scooters, but some escaped with the bigger ships, leaving to go back to Vapedia.

Ratchet looked at it, and then took a wild guess that it was Max Apogee's ship, and wanted to follow it, also because they would have to land to repair their ship, but after he made it out of the asteroid field and before he reached the hangar of the ship, it warped again, probably to another sector. Ratchet wanted to search for it, but Clank reminded him about the ship and that they were running low on fuel as well, and had to hurry to the Agorian Battleplex.

They turned back the way they came and routed the Aphelion back on course and soon enough after about five minute, the Agorian Battleplex in all it's vicious glory came into view around the redness of the Korthos Sector. Ratchet slowed the engines and stopped it floating at the hangar of the Battleplex, before rummaging through the trunk for any bolts they had and aciddentally bumped out the Zoni Vessel, but to their surprise, six Zonis volunteered to hop to out of the Vessel and repair the ship, back to the way it was before. "Must help master," they said in unison, and they all floating in a ring around Aphelion and fired their bolts of energy at it, pushing the smoke away and placing each part back into it's original position.

"Cool!" exclaimed Ratchet, hopping out of the ship with Clank, surprised at the Zonis work. "Thanks…I guess." The Zoni didn't respond to Ratchet, but exclaimed "Zoni!" when Clank nodded and smiled at them, before they zoomed back into the Zoni Vessel, waiting for the next time they'd be used.

"I guess we should walk in and refuel the ship," said Ratchet, looking at Clank, eager to know what he wanted to do.

"Don't forget, Ratchet, that we should search the Battleplex for clues as well, because if you remember, we are looking for Angela," Clank remarked, making all sorts of hand motions as he spoke. Ratchet frowned, thinking about Angela, and Clank gave a cheeky smile, before beginning to walk in. Ratchet realised that he should be walking with Clank and quickly caught up with him.

They walked into the main room and it was basically the same as it ever was. Statues on the sides, and Terachnoids wiring Agorians to weird machines, which probably gave them their power and other stuff used for battling. Ratchet walked over to the spot where Mac's hologram was and he was currently talking a Cazarean boy, looking about ten. "What do you mean I'm too young to enter the Agorian Battleplex battles?" complained the Cazarean boy, who looked rather shabby and was angry at Mac because he wasn't let into the competition.

"I'm sorry, young boy," said Mac, which angered the Cazare even more, making him roll his eyes. "But Agorian Battleplex rules apply. No "wannabe" who is deemed too young is allowed to enter the arena at any time, unless they are a member of the crowd." The boy shrugged angrily, and then noticed Ratchet, a bit taken aback, and then quickly ran off to play the "My Blaster Runs Hot" game. "Welcome back, Ratchet," said the hologram of Mac, noticing him standing beside the hologram at last. "Are you here to partake in another arena battle?"

"Hey, Mac," replied Ratchet, crossing his arms peacefully. "Unfortunately, I won't be battling today. Have you ever seen a female Lombax running around here? We have been given clues that she was in a large spaceship and was headed here."

"Any specific features to this…Lombax?" asked Max, not knowing that Ratchet and Angela were the last two Lombaxes in the dimension, not knowing even what a Lombax was but remembering that Ratchet was one so he waited for Ratchet's response.

"Well, she is the last female Lombax, so I think that if you saw her, then it would almost definitely be her," said Ratchet, looking a bit smug because he knew something that someone as smart as Mac didn't.

"Chasing after girls are ya?" he asked with a cheeky smile, like Clank's, angering Ratchet because no-one understood why he was trying to find Angela. "Well, if you mean the Lombax that delivered a package to…well, us…then yes."

"What do you mean us?" said Ratchet, suspicious and having almost completely forgotten about his earlier point of the Lombax delivering a package. Unexpectedly, the hologram of Mac disappeared, and Ratchet thought he was scared and run off, but instead the real Mac warped next to Ratchet, finally meeting him in person.

"Follow me," he said, turning to Ratchet, before walking off. Before Ratchet and Clank got a chance to say anything, they realised that they would have to follow him. They caught up to Mac and found him stopping at one of the Agorian statues (on closer inspection, it was Osiris the Malevolent) and he quickly looked around to see if there were any other contestants, and found one, but they walked into the arena. He then tapped the letters in the inscription a-g-o-r-i-a-n with a special black stick on top of the closest machine. The ground started shaking, and Ratchet managed to keep his balance, but Clank fell to the ground. Once he got back up and dusted himself off, he saw Mac walking into a doorway, and realised that statue had been moved down.

* * *

"Come in, come in," said Mac, his voice a bit muffled, and Ratchet realised that the room he entered was soundproofed.

Ratchet and Clank walked into a black, dark room filled with Terachnoids. There were tables with glass boxes on them with weird gadgets in them and a lot of armored Agorian warriors and pyrospinners, all on the sides while the middle of the room was filled with tables and all sorts of screens, some controlled the way the arena moved or was set up while some where security screens.

Ratchet stared at the darkness and mysteriousness of the room, and soon realised that the statue of Osiris the Malevolent was moving back up, making the room darker but the room wasn't shaken at all. He smiled when he saw two young Terachnoids, probably still learning and getting their apprenticeships, squabbling over who got to keep watch of a giant experimental green worm wriggling around in the glass case. The one closest to Ratchet slapped the other and an older Terachnoid came over and settled the fight down, and the one furthest got to keep watch.

The older Terachnoid in a white coat went back into his table, on the far-right side of the rectangular room and started directing a bunch of eight young Terachnoid adults in pairs who were being tested on their knowledge, and they started pouring chemicals into beakers and test tubes, and one pair looked at the temperature while another pour their chemicals into a beaker and weighed it on a triple beam balance.

"Welcome to the Secret of the Battleplex," Mac announced, breaking Ratchet out of the amazed trance. He couldn't see Mac due to the darkness, except for the light on his head, and was worried when Clank was nowhere to be seen, although he was standing right next to Ratchet. "This is where we control equipment when the Agorians go into the battle arena and we can see how many. We also protect these foreign rare items that are hooked up to a computer which help the Agorians battle and make different methods of battle possible for them."

He guided Ratchet and Clank to a box along the end wall of the dark room with a shiny sky blue rhombus held upright inside it with writing in Lombax etched on the side. Ratchet could understand Lombax writing now due to Sigmund and Clank teaching him before they left again to begin their quest to find Angela, but Ratchet was too far away to read it.

"This is a program that can be inserted into the top of a wireless VG-9000 controller, modified by us Terachnoids, but is not used to play Vid-Comic, but rather to control things," said Mac in his most proud and smart voice. Mac opened the case and took the blue rhombus device out, and he then whistled to a young assisant Terachnoid and whispered into his ear. The Terachnoid complied and ran off.

"It will take a while to find a wireless VG-9000 controller in our storage space," began Mac, looking apologetic towards Ratchet and Clank. "So why don't I show you some of the things we have in here." He walked past Ratchet and they followed him to upper-left corner of the room, where a little midget-like humanoid creature sat in the air, her wings buzzing, kind of like a half-humanoid, half-fly, floating inside the glass case (with a glove attached to the inside of it) and looking at Ratchet, having kind of an attraction to him.

"This is a Uterin," said Mac, and worried Ratchet when he began to say the name of it, thinking that he was going to say something else. "This species is extremely rare, and can only live in glass cases without dying. Most of this species travelled to a planet in which they expected it to be made of glass, but it turned out it was just shiny ice and they all died. Some, however stayed behind and we found this one and it agreed to live with us in the Battleplex. She is happy here, because she gets to look at all the Terachnoids and guests we bring through here, and always gets feed three times each day. I think she likes you."

By the time Mac had finished his story, the little Uterin had her body pressed up on the glass case, and was staring at Ratchet, trying to get closer to him. Ratchet decided to be kind to her and put his hand inside the inside out glove and was able to touch the little creature, lightly petting her, before being kissed on the hand. He watched as a brown piece of chocolate-looking food popped out of a glass tube petruding out of the wall and into the case, and the Uterin gave Ratchet one final kiss, before moving to eat her feed.

Ratchet started blushing, before realising that Mac and Clank had already moved on to the next object. Ratchet moved over to join them and heard some of the explanation Mac was giving.

"Now, the Wormod was created when scientists back on Terachnos were trying to create a new warrior for the Agorian Battleplex, and wondered how things would go if they mixed the DNA of a worm with the DNA of the Giant Snake, found on Lindashian. So they got a pale green, giant worm and although this is just the second prototype (the first one destroyed the labaratory), it already seems to be in control. Hopefully they'll give a controlled finished one soon."

"I saw that earlier," remarked Ratchet, surprising both Mac and Clank, who thought he stayed to have a moment with the Uterin. Mac turned around and smiled, before he noticed the young assisant from earlier running back to him with a wireless VG-9000 controller in his hands.

He took the controller and then moved back to the case and plugged the device into the top of it and pressed the Start button. A metal gate on the right side of the room, with no tables in front of it, opened and a gigantic metal robot flew out, over the tables, like it was built out of floating skyscraper and a small dome on the top.

"Whoa!" yelled Ratchet, looking at the robot floating in the air, checking it's features. It had jetpacks on it's feet, hands and on it's back as well, giving the proper lift.

"Now we can control Agorians while they are in battle, thanks to this, baby," said Mac, still focusing on the controller and directing the robot closer to Mac and he started checking the metal, and showed it off a bit by whacking it.

"I wish I had one of those!" exclaimed Ratchet, nudging Clank, who nodded to him in agreement. Mac noticed this and decided to give it to them because they had already cloned the object.

"You can have her," Mac suggested, offering the controller to Ratchet. "We've got plenty more copies in storage." Mac gave Ratchet the controller and he started moving the robot around the Secret of the Battleplex, over the scientists and chemicals, not grabbing their attention, and over the glass cases, wowing the Uterin and angering the Wormod, and Ratchet kept getting used to the controls by flying around the area.

Clank got angry because he didn't get to use it, but he didn't complain, because he didn't need it anyway. After Ratchet had finished, he pressed the Start button again and the robot's fell to the floor, thankfully not knocking everything over. He took the rhombus out of the controller and looked at the etching. hopefully that he would be able to read it.

"I've never been able to read that, but as a Lombax, you might be able to work it out," said Mac to Ratchet, looking at the etching with him.

"Made in the Woldgon Galaxy." Ratchet managed to read after translating for over a minute, always getting stuck on "Woldgon", because he had never heard of it before. He looked over to Mac to see if he knew what it was, but the look on his face suggested that he had no clue.

"Must be where that Lombax girl lives, because she's the one who delivered it to us," said Mac, thinking logically.

"Then, this will be a clue to where Angela is," said Clank, getting ready to leave. "But for some reason I don't think this will be easier than we think."

"Then lets go find her!" exclaimed Ratchet, almost leaving, but then remembering what Mac said. "Mac, how will I be able to take this robot with me?"

"Just press select," said Mac, before warping again and probably appearing back outside as a hologram. Ratchet found the "select" button on the controller, and pressed and looked at the robot. It folded inwards until it became a floating octahedron, and it moved over to Ratchet, and followed him wherever he went, like a shadow in the air. Ratchet took the octahedron with him, although he was forced to, and decided that he would call the blue rhombus the "Mind Control", or "Mindrol" for short, because it could take control of anything, like possessing someone. Ratchet shuddered at the thought of it getting into the wrong hands and stopped himself from thinking about it.

Ratchet stood in front of the doorway, blocked by the back of a rocky stone statue, and waited patiently as it checked the outside for any contestants or people that shouldn't know about the Secret of the Battleplex. He then waited for those people to leave, before the statue started shaking, and Ratchet could feel a little wobbling, but not much at all. The statue lowered to the ground, and Ratchet began to walk over it quickly, afraid that it would raise up again.

Clank followed him and they looked around the main room, and waved at Mac's hologram. The pair walked through the Battleplex, and saw the Cazarean boy emerging, who stared at them in fear for a while. Ratchet decided to ignore him, as he was probably embarrassed to be around a famous hero, and then walked into the hangar to hop in the newly-repaired Aphelion.

He was afraid that it was going to be different, but to his surprise it was exactly the same as it was when they left the Great Clock. Ratchet fired up the engines once again, and nodded to Clank, who nodded back in agreement, and they then lifted into the air, turning around and leaving the hangar, saying goodbye to the Battleplex for another time. They both were afraid that finding Angela wouldn't be an easy task, and then comforted themselves by that fact that if they were going to be thrown off course, then it could lead to finding Angela after all…

Chapter 2 Preview

_"Why isn't Aphelion moving?" asked Clank, and Ratchet then realised that they hadn't moved at all, and he turned around to see the War Grok grabbing the back of Aphelion like a toy, deciding not to destroy it as it could provide it entertainment. Ratchet tried blowing some more exhaust on the War Grok, trying to get it to let go, but once the tickling got too annoying, it blocked the engines with one of it's hands._

_"Snowball! Let them go! I will give the cookies I baked to Gwenda!" Ratchet heard the pathetic voice, and then banged his head on the steering wheel, realising that he would have to face the miserable sap named Captain Cornelius Leslie Qwark. Ratchet forced himself to turn around, and he was able to see, just past Snowball's body, Captain Qwark, looking very much the same, except with a pouch around his body, like a sash, running up to Snowball._


	2. Woldgon's Woes

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Ratchet and Clank set out to find Angela Cross, now confirmed a Lombax from news reports, and their first clue was at the Agorian Battleplex. On the way, __Valkyries attacked them, but Max Apogee's ship, believed to stow Angela, came with a battalion and saved Aphelion. Mac, the guide, took them to a room called the Secret of the Battleplex. There, Ratchet and Clank find a device delivered by Angela, which allowed Ratchet to control people's minds. Lombax co-ordinates were etched on the side of it, reading that it was made in the Woldgon Galaxy, therefore, they began to go there, but someone following them…_

_Chapter 2: Woldgon's Woes_

"Now entering the Woldgon Galaxy," said Aphelion, coming out of the warp and lazily drifting in space. Clank had already got bored on the trip and turned on the Holo-vision to watch "Robochef", which annoyed Ratchet greatly, but he still dealt with it lightly, and began to fiddle with a broken Personal Hygienator, which had caused Qwark to fall to shame. Even now, Ratchet wondered where Qwark was, and heard that he was roaming around the universe, visiting planets.

"Good," replied Ratchet, chucking the Personal Hygienator away, straight into Clank's face.

"HEY!" yelled Clank, who heard Ratchet whisper "Sorry", and he then picked up the Personal Hygienator and placed it in the airlock.

"Don't!" Ratchet pulled it back out before Clank pressed the "Eject" button, and carefully threw it into the back among all the other junk. He noticed that they were many planets that Ratchet had never seen before, and was amazed at how different they were to the planets occupying the Solana, Bogon and Polaris galaxies. There was one that looked like it was made exactly out of bricks, and one that looked like a type of candy.

"Why exactly are we looking for Angela?" asked Clank, distracting Ratchet's view of the new area they had entered. Ratchet rolled his eyes because he had told Clank the answer many times before, but he still seemed to keep asking for the reason why they were searching for Angela.

"We are searching for Angela because she will help us find the Lombaxes," babbled Ratchet, causing Clank to cross his arms and shake his head in disbelief. "Why do you keep asking?"

"I keep asking because I don't believe you." Ratchet had reached down into the door of the console, and managed to open it and look at all the circuitry to make sure everything was running according to plan. Still looking inside, he began to speak Clank again.

"Well, believe it or not, that's the reason," said Ratchet, emerging his head from inside the door and sitting back up on the chair. Clank still shook his head however, making Ratchet frustrated, but he managed to keep his cool. Ratchet noticed that Eddie, the "Robochef", was currently making a metal chicken dish, which reminded him of the one that he had seen in the Thugs-4-Less Prison advertisement.

"Why do you even watch this show?" asked Ratchet, making some hand movements with his right hand, while his left one was holding the steering wheel steady.

"You may not know, but I have a hidden passion for cooking," said Clank, folding his arms and trying to keep focus on the recipe being given.

"I remember doing some cooking back home on Veldin, while I was still a child. It was so disgusting that I've never wanted to handle food that wasn't mine to this day," said Ratchet, with both hands on the steering wheel, staring at some of the new planets appearing. "It was awful…I can remember all the muddy food and sharp blades, not to mention the jar of squished up Horny Toads!"

"_Squish them up real good!" yelled a woman's masculine voice._

"_Stop it, it's all over my face!" screamed a young boy's voice._

"_HAHAHA! You too wimpy to cook!" chanted a crowd of voices fit for a bully._

_A slicing sound appeared in Ratchet's mind, and it appeared a gigantic knife being held high, before slamming down._

"Ratchet, snap out it!" Ratchet was startled by Clank's voice, and suddenly reconnected with the world, and he realised that during his flashback, he had curled up on the seat and sucked his thumb. Slowly, he came back up, and didn't bother to talk to Clank and just let him watch Robochef while he steered Aphelion. He looked at the tracking device on his belt, and saw that it had picked up a sort of signal, but it was too far out of range to get an accurate reading.

"Clank, the tracking device has picked something up, but it's too far away," said Ratchet, taking it off his belt and passing it too him. Clank caught it and saw that it was switching between the Polaris and Woldgon galaxies, and agreed with Ratchet on not bothering to follow it's path. "I suggest we keep going to find out where this Mindrol thing was made." Clank nodded and saw that Robochef had ended, and after quick check of the other channels, he turned it off.

"So where do you want to check for clues?" asked Clank, wanting to do something because of Robochef ending.

"How about that planet down there?" Clank shrugged, so Ratchet decided to check Aphelion's database for a description, and was surprised to see a video pop up to tell them about it, with pictures showing the scene they were describing.

_Ever wanted to battle nature in a huge jungle? Well, get your sense of adventure at the planet Grokley. It is completely inhabited by War Groks, hence the name, but if you are afraid then this planet is not for you! There are plenty of dangerous traps that you could face while exploring, including__ the Pop Cave, where once you enter, you end up in an entirely different place on the planet (I heard that monsters like to hang around there for a feed). There is also the Forests of Silence, where you have to battle your frustration to get out before you starve, and there is even the Sludge River. Make your way through the mud and fog, while trying to stay alive by avoiding the poisonous lizards. Once a year, there is a survival contest, so if don't feel up to exploring alone, instead you will have a crowd cheering for you as you get ripped apart. So if you have the heart, visit Grokley and see if you reason with DEATH._

Ratchet stared blankly at the screen as the video ended, and was shocked at some of the pictures they showed. "Well, that was pleasant." Clank laughed weakly as he stared horrified as well. Some of the pictures shown were a skeleton's arm reached out as War Groks ripped it apart, with a crowd cheering behind them, and one was a person being poisoned by a lizard.

"Are we going to go there, anyway?" asked Clank curiously, feeling slightly ill after watching the video.

"Well, I don't think that brick planet back there isn't going to give much clues, so I guess we could, but we should really be very cautious," said Ratchet, starting to steer Aphelion to the right, towards Grokley, which he guessed looked as sickly green on the surface than it did in the atmosphere, because he couldn't really tell. He heard a faint warping sound and looked behind him quickly, before turning to Clank.

"Although, right now, we have to deal with this ship that has seemed to follow us to this galaxy. I though at first that it was just like us, visiting the galaxy, but it's tailing us," said Ratchet, who boosted Aphelion engines slightly, but not all the way because they were right near Grokley and Ratchet had a thirst for battling. "Hopefully this battle won't be as bad as some of those we fought when trying to stop Nefarious from using the Great Clock. I've been trying to forget about them by giving myself a cooler attitude."

The ship that was following them was a black colour, so black that it blended in with the galaxy. It could only be distinguished with a fat lime green stripe running down the middle of it, like a conveyor belt. It looked something like the Star Explorer given to them by Abercrombie Fizzwidget, except the wings were curved back, and it's body looked kind of like a ramp, with it's point facing the front, except it was a tiny bit more circular, like a cross between the Star Explorer and Aphelion.

"I'm not sure if getting attention by dogfighting is a good idea. Maybe, this is a good time to test how the Mindrol works," said Clank, looking around for it and the instruction manual to it. Ratchet sighed, once again not getting any fun due to Clank, and helped him search for the Mindrol. Eventually after much searching from just on his chair, he wanted to search the entire ship.

"Aphelion, orbit around Grokley until I find the Mindrol," said Ratchet, before immediately jumping out of his seat and crawling towards the trunk at the back.

"You are lucky I didn't decide to turn the floor to a lava temperature," said Aphelion, keeping at a steady pace around Grokley. Ratchet ignored her and opened the trunk, and saw that it was full of items that Ratchet and Clank had collected on their adventures. There was the Persuader, the Infiltrator, the Hacker and even the Decrypter from when Tachyon took over Polaris.

Ratchet finally found an instruction manual along with the Mindrol, and it showed him a diagram that told him it had a targeting feature with it and a feature to actually control the target himself instead of using the controller. Following the manual's instructions, he pressed a button on the top-left of the controller and a screen slid out of the top of it, just behind where the rhombus was and it showed a small radar.

The was only one blip coming from the radar centre, where Aphelion was, and this was coming from behind them, obviously meaning that it was tracking the ship following them. He pressed a button with a weird symbol etched on it, and it zoomed down on the blip, searching for the nearest target to take control of. Suddenly, his eyes were filled with a green colour, blocking his vision, until it quickly disappeared and found out he was in an entirely different place.

The inside of the ship was black too, and the seat felt familiar to Ratchet, and he then realised that it was a different model of the Star Explorer. The interior had a pair of pink, fluffy dice hanging from the top, and Ratchet looked behind him to see that there was a lot of girly products there, and didn't bother to see every thing in detail, completely missing the photos of Cronk and Zephyr.

He looked around the console, knowing much of it from when he piloted the Star Explorer, and finally found the comlink. Quickly, he checked in front of him and saw Aphelion smoothly orbiting around Grokley, with the ship Ratchet was in on her tail. He turned on the comlink, and saw that it's camera was broken, so he was only allowed to speak into it.

"Clank! This is Ratchet, Firstly…am I a girl?" asked Ratchet wildly, trying not to look at the body he was occupying.

"Clank here. Judging by your voice, yes, you are a girl. But your voice sounds a bit familiar..." responded Clank, finding Ratchet's transmission.

"Okay. Now secondly, is it legal to take other people's bodies to do your bidding?" asked Ratchet again, still in a wild voice.

"Who knows and who cares?" asked Clank, being oddly laid-back and reckless. "So, who is the person piloting the ship, and are there any passengers?"

"Well, I am completely alone, and I don't really want to look at myself, otherwise I might throw up from hideousness or something. Do I have to?"

"No, you don't."

"So do I get to blow up the ship now or something?"

"I think it would be more safer to dock it somewhere. Who knows? It could be just a helpless traveller following ships to see if they'll lead them to adventure."

"Aww," said Ratchet, finally obeying Clank. He grabbed the steering and saw that his arms were definitely feminine, and looked a little familiar, but he just didn't care and so he started looking for a place to dock the ship. Clank was sitting on his seat, understanding that there must have been something wrong with the camera, and he reluctantly looked over to Ratchet's body, which was sitting limp with his tongue lolling out.

"Hey, how about that ship over there that's coming into view?" asked Ratchet, looking to his left, and Clank had no idea where it was, but after little effort, he found it as well. Both he and Ratchet could only see the deactivated engine on the back of it, but Clank was just able to the entrance to the hangar, and saw that it was open to docking. "I can't see if it's hangar is open. Can you?"

"Yes, I can just see, and it's hangar is wide open," said Clank, looking over the body of Ratchet and not caring that he was virtually temporarily dead. "You should be able to get in there, and if there is any resistance, it would be up to the pilot to survive." Ratchet nodded, not remembering that Clank couldn't see him, and turned to the left towards the gigantic ship.

"Docking there right now," said Ratchet, as he perfectly piloted the ship beside the bigger one, not bothering at all to look at it's texture and entered through the blue energy field, passing through easily, and the field allowed him to breathe in space. He landed the ship easily, and hopped out the same way he did while in the Star Explorer, and then realised that the black ship wasn't his.

"Clank…" began Ratchet as he read a sign above the main door to the inside of the huge ship. "We are in that ship that saved us. It was the Apogee Spaceship." He was reading a sign on top of the door that said "Entrance to the Apogee Spaceship", and guessed that Max Apogee, Talwyn's father, had saved them but didn't want to be found. "There are no other ships in the hangar. I'm going to go and check around!"

"Don't, Ratchet!" yelled Clank, sighing at Ratchet's recklessness. "If you are found, then wouldn't it be strange if you were speaking as the person you've occupied? They might think you're an intruder or impostor and that would mean trouble. Just come back and let them deal with the situation they are in." Ratchet sighed once again, but was thinking of some of the possible consequences, and he didn't want to be caught in a serious adventure like last time.

"Fine, I'll leave…" said Ratchet, before noticing that he didn't have the Mindrol. Doubtfully, he walked back to the black ship and looked inside, and to his surprise the Mindrol was sitting on the opposite seat, with Ratchet having ignored it the whole time. He reached over the side, feeling the metal push into his stomach until he finally grabbed it and stood back up straight.

"It's good to see your body without your tongue hanging out the side," said Clank, sitting next to Ratchet in Aphelion. Ratchet didn't even realise that he had accidentally pressed the same button and returned to his body until Clank spoke. Ratchet ignored Clank's compliment and looked over to the left to the see that it was in fact the ship that saved them from the Valkyries.

"Angela has got to be in there. Let's go," said Ratchet, grabbing the steering wheel, but in the corner of his eye he could see that Clank wasn't too happy. "What's wrong?" Clank folded his arms and thought for a while, leaving them in awkward silence.

"I'm still not totally convinced. The ship seems to know who we are, and the engines are off, so they may have powered down so no-one could track them. There are no other ships, and you only saw one sign, which could mean that it was placed there as a forgery." Ratchet sighed as Clank cautiousness, but since the Great Clock, he could see why, and decided to agree with him.

"Fine…so should we go to Grokley, then?" asked Ratchet sarcastically, as Grokley would be orders of magnitude more dangerous than the "Apogee Spaceship".

"All right," said Clank, making Ratchet go wide-eyed and his mouth twitch in shock. Clank didn't notice this and so Ratchet shrugged and grabbed the steering wheel, pushing to the right towards Grokley.

* * *

Ratchet was still amazed to see the sight of breaking through the atmosphere, busting through the sickly clouds and facing the muddy surface of Grokley. He looked far across the surface, slowing Aphelion to a snail's pace as he basked in the amazing view. Towards the left was what looked like a huge pond of muddy sludge, and south of it was a huge forest, near some cliffs, which led to small villages of what looked like shelters made of bark, and could hear the roars of War Groks below. Near it was a cave, seemingly leading nowhere, but he remembered about what was said on the video.

"This is obviously amazing!" yelled Ratchet, but Clank didn't care as much. Finally, Ratchet boosted Aphelion's engines to an average and smooth speed, and he then began to looked for somewhere to land. "Can you see anywhere we land?" Clank sat himself up and looked around, before seeing a giant tree stump, perfectly cut for landing on. Clank wondered about the environmental damage, but shrugged it off.

"How about over there?" asked Clank, pointing over to the tree stump. Ratchet looked over and nodded, even though Clank wasn't paying attention, and he turned Aphelion to the right and angled out, drifting smoothly towards the tree stump, until he finally floated above it and turned the engine off, still leaving Aphelion floating. Ratchet jumped out on the left side and felt his feet touch the rough, but pleasant, wooden floor, however, we wasn't going to feel it for long.

"Isn't this great? Everything feels smooth and nice, even though the sky is green," said Ratchet, looking up at the some of the dangerous birdlife attacking each other. He looked away in disgust and turned around to see Clank sitting in his seat unhappily. "What's the matter?" Clank wasn't listening, and after saying his name a few times, getting louder each time, he finally realised what Ratchet asked him.

"I was just doing a check on the planet, and I found that with a population of 200 and not a very big space on the surface, a War Grok could turn up any moment now." Clank tapped his foot a few times on the air while he had his legs crossed, and Ratchet shook his head at Clank stubbornness.

"Come on, no War Grok is going to…" Ratchet trailed off as in the distance, behind Aphelion he saw a War Grok charging towards them, looking vicious and hungry. "Clank…fire up Aphelion's engines before we become a two course meal." Clank wondered what Ratchet was staring at, and then turned around to face the War Grok getting closer and closer. Clank was too shocked to start the engines, and eventually Ratchet noticed that Clank wasn't doing anything.

"COME ON!" yelled Ratchet, sidling back towards Aphelion and jumping in, keeping his eye on the War Grok the whole time. Clank managed to snap out of his fear and boosted the engines to maximum power, and only when Ratchet turned around to grab the steering wheel, he realised that the War Grok was the one that he had fought in the Agorian Battleplex when looking for Clank.

"Why isn't Aphelion moving?" asked Clank, and Ratchet then realised that they hadn't moved at all, and he turned around to see the War Grok grabbing the back of Aphelion like a toy, deciding not to destroy it as it could provide it entertainment. Ratchet tried blowing some more exhaust on the War Grok, trying to get it to let go, but once the tickling got too annoying, it blocked the engines with one of it's hands.

"Snowball! Let them go! I will give the cookies I baked to Gwenda!" Ratchet heard the pathetic voice, and then banged his head on the steering wheel, realising that he would have to face the miserable sap named Captain Cornelius Leslie Qwark. Ratchet forced himself to turn around, and he was able to see, just past Snowball's body, Captain Qwark, looking very much the same, except with a pouch around his body, like a sash, running up to Snowball.

"Come on, let go of the friendly travellers…pretty please…please, please, please…I'll tell Josie!" Despite Qwark's pleading, Snowball kept holding on to Aphelion tightly and wouldn't let go. Suddenly, Snowball decided to play with Aphelion by running around the area holding Aphelion like a toy spaceship. Qwark smiled at Snowball's playfulness, but at the same time wanted him to let go, even though he hadn't realised that Ratchet and Clank were in Aphelion, because of the different paint job.

"This is ridiculous," said Ratchet, getting impatient with having to wait for Snowball to get tired or something to stop him from playing with Aphelion. He tapped his fingers, and then chewed some gum, while Clank waited patiently, until he finally snapped. "I can't take this anymore!" He reached into the back and grabbed the octahedron and opened the top of Aphelion, confusing Snowball and making him stop.

"Huh?" said Qwark, stopping as well after running after Snowball. Ratchet tossed the octahedron upwards and closed the top, hearing the octahedron land on it as he picked up the Mindrol. He checked that the rhombus was inside and then pressed "Start, and heard two thumps, before looking up to see two robotic legs standing on the top of Aphelion, somehow staying on.

Snowball was mesmerised as the robot floated slightly upwards, and let go of Aphelion, making it drop to the ground and start hovering above it. It reached out for the robot, and Ratchet opened the top again and pressed "Select", and watched as the robot folded back into it's ball form and plummeted towards the ground. He leaped up high to catch it and sat back down. Qwark saw the Lombax figure, and then realised that the ship was Aphelion.

"NO! LET ME COME WITH YOU!" yelled Qwark as he heard the engine roar. He held his pouch in place and ran towards Aphelion, while Ratchet was desperately to get out of here, but Clank's kindness prevented him. Ratchet didn't even bother to look, and felt Qwark's weight enter Aphelion and eventually looked back to see him squished in behind the seats.

Ratchet eventually closed the top of Aphelion, and boosted the engines. He piloted Aphelion upwards until he was level with a cliff, as high as two War Groks, and tried piloting over it so Snowball wouldn't be able to catch up with them. Unfortunately, due to Qwark slowing Ratchet and Clank down, Snowball had already shifted it's attention back to Aphelion, and began running after it and jumping, trying to grab hold.

"Come on, we have enough time to get over the cliff!" yelled Ratchet to Aphelion, who tried desperately to fly faster. Ratchet was thrown forward into the steering wheel as a loud "THOMP" was heard. He caressed his sore head and looked back, seeing that Snowball had succeeded in grabbing onto Aphelion. He hoped that they would still make is over the cliff, along Snowball to crash into the side, but he turned around and found that Aphelion was flying downwards thanks to Snowball.

"Hold on!" yelled Ratchet to both Clank and Qwark, and before the ground came too close he closed his eyes and ducked down under the seat. He felt his whole body shake, and heard crashing sounds as his head bonked the chassis of the seat and eventually, his body was thrown backwards into the console. After hearing one final crashing sound, he began to hear the roars of a War Grok.

Coughing, he slowly stood up, and turned around to look at Aphelion's console. "Aphelion, are you still alright?" he asked, seeing that outside, half of the window was buried in the ground. He looked back and saw Qwark dazed, and behind him was the back window, which was pointing out of the ground, and there was no War Grok in sight. He simply assumed that Snowball had crashed into the side of the cliff and fell down to the ground.

"I am still fully functioning," said Aphelion, checking the damage reports. "Only minimal damage to the skin. Although this isn't really damage, a lot of my paint has been scraped off. I'm not sure if it was fear or a wet dream about you that has caused a small oil leak in my internal fuel processor. No oil has been leaking outside of me, though." Ratchet smiled weakly at the "wet dream" part, and then remembered that he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Okay, Aphelion. Let's get out of here." Ratchet checked that Clank and Qwark were okay, and saw that they were both conscious, but were rubbing their heads in pain. He sat down and waited for Aphelion's response.

"Well, so much for clean underwear," said Qwark, in the pause after Ratchet, making both him and Clank laugh. "No, I'm serious." Ratchet and Clank's faces of laughter suddenly turned to faces of disgust as Qwark felt his bottom and shivered.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that, Ratchet," said Aphelion, finally responding to Ratchet's command earlier. Ratchet gasped in shock, and looked at the console wide-eyed.

"What do you mean?"

"After many calculations, I have figured that I am too deep in the ground to take off."

"Have you tried just blasting your way through the dirt."

"I did a check on the soil, and if I did try and blast my way through, I would only got deeper." Ratchet sighed in exhaustion.

"Fine, we'll try and pull you out." Ratchet looked at Qwark and Clank, who shook their poor, hurting heads. "Why not?" yelled Ratchet, but was only returned with cold stares. "Oh-okay, keep cool, we'll just stay here for now, then." He sat back down on the seat, facing Clank, and then began to wonder how Qwark had got on Grokley. The last time they saw him was on the Nefarious Space Station, and then he disappeared.

"Qwark," began Ratchet, getting his attention. "Would you mind telling us your "heroic" story of how you ended up in this place, because the last time we saw you was on the Nefarious Space Station?" He looked at Qwark in shock, because according to his history with Ratchet, he hadn't cared for any of his story, but he understood because of the situation they were in.

"Well, let's see," began Qwark, trying to think of a good exaggerated story. Ratchet and Clank smirked to each other, eager to hear one of Qwark's ridiculously inaccurate stories. "Well then, after the station explode, I became stuck on an asteroid with Snowball, who suddenly got a hunger for blood. With an iron fist, I managed to fend off Snowball's rage long enough for the asteroid to enter a planet's atmosphere. I soon found out that we had drifted to the Woldgon Galaxy, and that I was on Snowball's home planet of Grokley.

"The other War Groks joined his hunger and went off to scavenge for a meal. They then realised that with my awesome strength, that I would be the ideal slave to find food for them. However, I pulled through with my courageous spirit and obliterating body, and I survived for six min- err, days under their blood-thirsty law. During my time, I found this pouch, and eventually decided to escape, and that's when Snowball chased me and came across you."

"Right," said Ratchet, rolling his eyes. "So who are Gwenda and Josie?"

"Oh, them," said Qwark, rubbing the back of his head embarrassed and chuckling weakly. "Well, Gwenda is a masculine female War Grok who doesn't like Snowball and vice versa, while Josie is Snowball's girlfriend, who I may have gotten a little intimate with…" Ratchet realised what Qwark meant and felt like throwing up, but Clank was oblivious to Qwark's beating around the bush.

Clank heard the roars of War Groks getting closer and closer, and looked to Ratchet who could hear them too. Reluctantly, Ratchet opened the top to Aphelion looked around, but could see no War Groks. He decided to check the bottom of the cliff, and so he climbed out onto the rough surface, and crawl over to the peak. Looking down below, he could see a tribe of about ten-fifteen War Groks climbing up the cliff with Snowball.

"We have company!" yelled Ratchet, who got up and turned around, running towards Aphelion. He jumped on the tail of it and slid over the top and landed in his seat, impressing Clank and Qwark. He closed the top and tried boosting the engines, but they didn't seem to work because of the other half being buried in the ground. Eventually, the War Groks began to surface at the top, roaring into the air, preparing to get some food.

"!" yelled a soft voice from a distance away. Curious, Ratchet looked around, and eventually saw a figure that looked like a comet or a speeding bullet entering the atmosphere and rushing towards Aphelion. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out what the figure was, and as it slowed down, he realised it was the black ship that was following them earlier.

"Clank, it's that ship that was following us! I think whoever is inside it said my name. Could it be Angela?" Clank was able to see the ship as it got closer to Aphelion, and it eventually hovered above the War Groks distracting them as a chute on the side opened up and a grapple latched onto Aphelion. It turned away from the War Groks, trying to pull Aphelion out, and after many minutes of struggling, it eventually managed to slide out Aphelion.

"Finally!" yelled Ratchet, as the War Groks realised what was happening to their feast and tried to grab on desperately, but they were not able to reach it as it hovered with the black ship over the cliff and out of sight. Ratchet watched as Aphelion was dragged around the entire planet a few times until the black ship finally landed in between a forest and muddy river.

Aphelion hovered on the ground with it, and the grapple finally released from her side. Ratchet and Clank both opened the top, eager to find out who had saved them from the War Groks, but Qwark had no idea what was going on and decided to jump out anyway. Ratchet anxiously waited as the top of the black ship began to open, and the person who came out of it was Talwyn Apogee…

* * *

Ratchet stared at in glee, expecting her to say something awesome. "Why the hell did you take over my body while I was stuck immobile in yours?" Ratchet hopes were shattered, and he could actually imagine the glass inside of him breaking. Clank laughed but Qwark stood there confused, not getting what was going on. Talwyn smiled at Ratchet's face and then looked away in embarrassment.

"Well, SOR-RY!" said Ratchet, still amazed at Talwyn's strictness. "It was obviously suspicious having a mysterious ship following us, so we just decided to move you away, kind of." Talwyn skeptically looked at Ratchet with her arms folded, shaking her head slightly and beginning to a smile. Soon, she and Ratchet bursted into laughter, and he was surprised when Talwyn went up and hugged him, causing him to blush.

"I knew that voice was familiar on the comlink," said Clank once the awkward hug was over. Talwyn turned her stare from Ratchet over to Clank, and was thinking about the comlink.

"Yeah, you couldn't see me because the comlink has been screwing up lately," said Talwyn, thinking about how it was inside Ratchet's body with no mobility what-so-ever. "It was hell being inside Ratchet, having to listen in on the conversation and not being able to move at all. I can see why Ratchet didn't want to look the body he was in, because if he looked down, then he would have probably seen my cleavage."

"Well, that's good, I guess," said Ratchet, imagining what it would have been like if he looked down. Talwyn saw Ratchet's face and knew what he was doing.

"Stop thinking about it!" she yelled, making him jump and walk back in fright, causing Clank to snicker. He looked at Qwark, who had no clue of what was going on, and Ratchet and Clank quickly recounted the fate of Azimuth, and then how they began to search for Angela, and then the events that led them to Grokley.

"And that reminds me, Talwyn," said Ratchet, taking his position away from Qwark and to Talwyn. "What has been going on with Max Apogee's ship, and why are you following us."

"You must be wondering a great deal about what happened," said Talwyn, trying to remember what happened. "Well, after Hoolefar, I decided to track down my father, and thanks to that news report, I decided to look for his ship as my first clue. I got my own ship and eventually found my father's in the Woldgon Galaxy after much searching, but it was empty. I guess that my father and Angela heard the news report and abandoned the ship so they could lay low. I was just about to leave when I saw Aphelion, and so I tailed after it, and you know the rest."

"Damn," said Ratchet, sighing and pulling up a rock to sit on.

"What?" asked Talwyn with great concern, but Ratchet didn't answer her question.

"We've been looking for Angela, and we thought that she might be on the Apogee Spaceship, but unfortunately we now have no lead. Our search is done," said Ratchet, and Qwark finally understood what happened to Ratchet and Clank, and shared their sadness. Ratchet looked up and was furious to see Talwyn smirking. "Do you think this funny?" Talwyn did a motion with her hands to incidate "No, wait", before regaining her breath.

"You have a lead now," said Talwyn, causing Ratchet to stand up, his hopes regained. "While on the Spaceship, I found a crumpled up note inside a trash can. I don't have it with me, but it was in my father's handwriting and it said something about a Lombax planet in Woldgon, called Lomtaber. According to legend, it was attacked in the Great War and only two Lombaxes remain on the planet to date, one a fully grown male, and one still an egg. I'm not sure that Lombaxes hatch from eggs, but it's never been confirmed they don't. The message trailed off with no indication of him going to visit or why he wouldn't, but it would still be a place to go to look for clues!"

"I'm guessing this rules out the recreating the Lombax species thing with Angela," muttered Clank so only Ratchet could hear it, smirking naughtily. "I'm a bad bad boy." He walked cool and slowly towards Aphelion, jumping in.

Ratchet gritted his teeth at Clank's comment, but soon realised that no-one else heard, relaxing him. "Let's go to Lomtaber, then!" he yelled, running towards Aphelion and jumping in, while Talwyn and Qwark slowly walked there.

"I saw what happened to you with the War Groks. Nice job," said Talwyn to Qwark sarcastically, causing him to flush in embarrassed. Talwyn didn't expect a response from him as she smirked, and then realised that her ship was still there, waiting to be piloted. Ratchet noticed this too, and looked down to her, waiting for her to ask about it.

"Ratchet, I have a plan about my ship," said Talwyn, surprising him, because he thought that she would ask him for help. "I will dock it at my father's ship, and then you can pick me up there and then we will go to Lomtaber. How about that?" Ratchet thought the plan over and saw that there was nothing wrong with it at all, so he nodded once she turned around and watched as she jumped back in the black ship of her blasted off into the sky, with Aphelion following close behind…

Chapter 3 Preview

_Simultaneously, they stepped on their silhouettes. BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! The silhouettes all lighted up in the beautiful sun and after a dramatic pause, the pillars shook and the team desperately tried to keep on the pillar. Qwark was pushed to the side and clung for dear life until finally, the earthquake stopped and everyone opened their eyes to find them selves in a pitch black room._


	3. Of All the Lombaxes

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Ratchet and Clank continue their search for Angela Cross, confirmed to be a Lombax to help keep t__he Lombax race alive. Ratchet and Clank arrive in the Woldgon Galaxy and use a device called a "Mindrol" to stop a ship from following them until they eventually land it on the Apogee Spaceship. Being cautious, they decide to investigate Grokley, where they meet Qwark and Talwyn. Ratchet learns that a Lombax egg was found on a planet rumoured to be inhabited by a single Lombax after the Great War…_

_Chapter 3: Of All the Lombaxes…_

"Docking the ship now, Ratchet," said Talwyn into the broken comlink as she approached the hangar of the Apogee Spaceship, abandoned by her father and left to float in space. "Come on…" she muttered so no-one could hear through the comlink. "I've got to find my father." She entered the blue bubble giving oxygen to the hangar, and landed somewhere near the door, and hopped out as the ship floated there.

She stared at the sign above the main entrance, knowing that she missed something, but she didn't know what, and she thought that she might have been lying to herself about the whole thing, and that the ship was completely empty. Talwyn heard Aphelion whooshing into the blue bubble, and turned around to see it landing right next to her ship. She sighed and waited for Ratchet, Clank and Qwark to emerge, before turning around again.

"I feel like I missed something. I'm going to go check around!" she yelled, and started running up the staircase and towards the door without waiting for a response.

"Wait, Talwyn!" yelled Ratchet in vain, but he was not able to stop her and watched as the door closed around her. Talwyn stopped inside the room, and remembered that it was just a blank rectangular room with a desk in the middle and a Holo-vision at the back. Two doors were on both sides, and tried to remember the way to the cockpit, and found herself drifting towards the left, as if her sub-consciousness was telling her.

Just as the left door closed behind Talwyn, Ratchet entered the room with Clank and Qwark, noticed that the room was empty as well, and guessed that she took one of the doors. "Okay, Qwark. You search for Talwyn through the right door. Clank, you stay here in case she comes back while I take the left door." They all nodded, and Qwark skipped dreamily through the right door, skipping so fast he whacked his right arm on the side, and yelped in pain as he disappeared towards the left in the corridor.

"Keep watch, Clank!" yelled Ratchet as he started walking away from Clank and waved as he slowly walked through the door. Ratchet sighed, feeling bad that he left best friend to keep watch, but he knew that he would pull through because of the Holo-vision inside the room. He noticed he was standing at the entrance to a long corridor leading to the right, and the left wall seemed to be a mesh of some sort guarding an engine or computer, because programming sounds and lights could be made out coming through the mesh.

"She could have gone far," Ratchet muttered, as he looked down the seemingly endless corridor. He shrugged his shoulders and strolled down corridor, looking out for any sign of a door or passageway. Eventually, he almost gave up, but in the corner of his right eye was a staircase leading up to a higher room. Looking around for any other passage, he slowly started walking up the stairs, and cautiously opened the door.

He peered inside and saw another room like the one with the Holo-vision, except this one was full of papers with no meaning obviously, because Talwyn was nowhere to be found. He put his whole body through and shut the door, and then walked over to the desk and sat down. Scrambling through the papers, he found many weird drawings and messages, including one talking about some "Villainous Alliance", and other one had a drawing of a blob of some sort and a pre-adolescent Cazare.

"What is all this? I can see why Talwyn didn't bother with this ship. All this stuff makes absolutely no sense," said Ratchet, not noticing the cockpit in front, a little higher than the room due to two wide steps.

"Hmmm? Ratchet?" Ratchet looked up and saw that he had missed the cockpit, which windows were two wide ones separated by a foundation, and the console stretched along it, with five seats there to operate it. Talwyn was sitting on the one on the right, closest to the middle, and was searching through the console for something that she could have missed. Ratchet facepalmed for not noticing the cockpit, and then walked up the steps towards her.

"Found anything?" he asked politely, and was only answered with a shake of the head. He noticed that Talwyn was looking all over the ship's computer to find a clue or something, but he didn't actually know what she was doing. "So, what are you looking for?" He scratched his head as she muttered about some of the things she was looking at, and she didn't answer his question for a while.

"I'm trying to look for a reason as to why my father would not be motivated to go to Lomtaber," said Talwyn, having stopped her searching. "I realised, when talking to you on Grokley, that there was no indication of my father wanting to go to Lomtaber, even though it would have been perfect for Angela. I thought there would have been a drawback, but from all the stuff I've been searching though, there is no conclusive evidence as to whether he went or not."

"But, why are you hesitating going to Lomtaber?" curiously asked Ratchet.

"Because of you," said Talwyn, lifting her head up towards him with a sad look on her face. "I don't want to go because it might make you feel weird because of the Great War and all that stuff about the Lombaxes." A tear started rolling down her cheek and Ratchet walked up to her and slowly hugged her, trying to comfort her with the fact that he was still there.

Talwyn tried to stop crying immediately and let go of Ratchet, wiping the tears from her face. "Sorry about that, Ratchet. We should go to Lomtaber now," she said, before leaving the cockpit. She turned around and waited for Ratchet to come down as well, and joined him as they left the room, back into the dark corridor.

Clank heard the door open, looked around, and swore he saw a glimpse of Ratchet and Talwyn holding hands, but they no longer were and just shrugged it off, thinking that his optical sensors were playing tricks on him again. "I see that you found her…Damn, I have no witty remark I can think of that would be good in this situation." Ratchet smiled quickly and returned to his normal straight face.

"Yes, she was wandering about the ship looking for a reason not to go to Lomtaber, because she's afraid she might wet her pants." Talwyn looked at Ratchet wildly, her eye twitching a bit, as Ratchet smirked away from her. He turned to face her, but his vision became blurry and then realised that Talwyn had smacked him silly. "Great. Now that's over, looks like I'm going to have to search for Qwark (I should have never stopped Aphelion)."

"I'll be back before you can say "Where has he got to now?"," said Ratchet, walking off and quickly disappearing behind the metal door, strolling along with pride. Talwyn and Clank exchanged a friendly glance, which soon turned to a bored, tired glance. "NOT THAT FAST!" Talwyn and Clank jumped from shock, and turned around, finding that Ratchet had poked his head back through the door. "Sorry," he whispered before running off again.

Clank almost fell over from Ratchet's stupidity at the same Talwyn facepalmed, sighed and then began to slowly waltz over to the hangar. Clank heard her footsteps clanging on the metallic ground, noticed what she was doing, and decided to join her on the way to Aphelion. "So how have you been lately in the universe?" asked Clank, shocking Talwyn a bit and causing her to stop.

"Are you trying to make small talk with me?" asked Talwyn, surprised that she had never seen this side of Clank before.

"Hey, the always enough space for SMALL talk in this HUGE universe," said Clank shrugging, making Talwyn smile and continue to walk, automatically opening the door to the hangar. The view of Aphelion and Talwyn's ship from up higher was quite spectacular, and Talwyn then decided to answer Clank's question and talk to him about her life as they walked to Aphelion.

"Qwark, where are you, boy?" asked Ratchet, whistling after every call as if he was a lost puppy. He was slowly tiptoeing down a hallway identical to the one he trekked down to find Talwyn, and it had that same computer buzzing noise. Ratchet almost tripped and supported himself with his hand on the mesh, allowing some dust to go near him. He smelled the intoxicating aroma of dust and huffed a few times, until he finally sneezed all the dust out of his nose.

"Who's there?" asked an extremely familiar voice immediately. Ratchet peered through the darkness, trying to find some sign of Qwark, but the darkness was too strong for him until he heard running footsteps and saw a figure moving somewhere.

"Qwark, is that you?" asked Ratchet, still trying to look for him through the black. He was spontaneously knocked off his feet, crashing on the ground hard with his back, and felt his stomach in pain.

"Ratchet, I'm so sorry!" yelled Qwark from somewhere unknown. "I thought you were someone else coming from the other side of the corridor and I bolted this way straight into you. I guess my fantastic muscles betrayed me once again, but damn they look good." He saw the dull look on Ratchet's face, looking blindly upwards. "Oh, sorry. Here, let me help you up." Ratchet felt a hand grab his left arm and pull him up, and he was then able to see Qwark standing behind him.

"Nice job getting scared," said Ratchet, clutching his stomach in pain and feeling Qwark's hand let go of him.

"I-uh-didn't get scared at all. Ummm, I simply….simply….retreated to find reinforcements." Qwark's eyes looked left and right, clearly showing that he was lying, and Ratchet sarcastically nodded with a fake smile, and walked off leaving behind a sneer on Qwark's face. He entered back into the lit room, blinding his eyes a bit and causing him to block the light until his eyes adjusted, and wasn't surprised to see that Clank and Talwyn were gone.

"You coming, Qwark?" asked Ratchet to the space behind him, his voice a little louder than usual, and the sound of the door opening and closing again answered his question. Qwark followed Ratchet silently to the metal door of the hangar, and walked through with him, seeing Talwyn and Clank talking in the front seats of Aphelion with the top open. Ratchet only noticed this halfway down the short steps and wondered why they were chatting and drinking as if they were good friends.

"I suppose that they are good friends, because they helped each other in Polaris, but I don't understand why Clank is actually chatting like a normal person," thought Ratchet, as he hopped into Aphelion and Clank and Talwyn shifted immediately to the back, still talking and not taking their eyes off each other. Qwark smiled ecstatically when he realised he'd be sitting in the front and immediately jumped in, and almost destroyed the chair with his weight.

"You guys okay back there?" asked Ratchet with his head turned to the back. Clank and Talwyn kept talking while they turned their heads towards him and nodded, and continued to talk again. Ratchet heard a creak and looked at Qwark, and saw that his weight was crushing the seat and he had an unrelaxed expression on his face. "Qwark, get off!" It was too late. The chair had sprung upwards and hurled Qwark into the ceiling, whacking his head on the tough metal and causing even more pain when he came down.

Ratchet automatically gave himself a look of pain and "ouch, that's got to hurt" as Qwark's body laid on the ground, finally distracting Clank and Talwyn from their conversation. "What's going on?" they chanted as they moved to the side of Aphelion to see Qwark laying on the ground. They all seriously thought Qwark was injured, but their worries were unexpectedly shattered when Qwark got back up immediately and jumped into the seat, being a little more careful sitting down this time.

"O….kay…." said Ratchet, before closing the top and starting up the engines of Aphelion, and again hearing the annoying, head-aching chatter of Talwyn and Clank's conversation, but he calmed himself down with heavy breathing and then slowly grabbed the rubber steering wheel. Clank and Talwyn shook off the small jolts they felt as Aphelion rose upwards, and then boosted off into space, leaving behind Talwyn's black ship.

"IT'S GONE!" yelled Talwyn, startling the others and causing them to look at her. "The Apogee Spaceship! It just warped!" She was somehow distracted from her conversation and looked at the ship long enough to see it disappear. "My ship's gone too!" Ratchet, Clank and Qwark all simultaneously looked back to see that indeed the Apogee Spaceship had disappeared completely.

"Well, this is going to be a long trip….Wait! What am I saying? It's going to take the exact same time as if the Apogee Spaceship was still there!" yelled Ratchet, but realised that no-one was listening and had already prepared some entertainment for the long, at least five hour trip. "Well, Aphelion. You might as well plot a course for Lomtaber while I join in the fun."

"I never get any fun but I'll do it anyway," said Aphelion, sighing and make a few beeping sounds due to her shifting into autopilot. Ratchet moved into the back with Clank and Talwyn, and played some board games they had in the trunk, while Qwark turned on the Holo-vision and started watching his own shows on his own channel, from back when he was extremely famous as a galactic hero, but now he was just a lowly unaccredited hero, alone in the world.

The ride to Lomtaber took longer than expected, but once they were finally full on junk food and bored of "bored" games, the planet finally came into Aphelion's view. "Hey, guys! Look!" yelled Ratchet lazily, trying to sit up to look at Lomtaber clearly. Eventually, Lomtaber came closer and Ratchet was able to see it clearly, and saw that it had a balanced environment, with around a third of desert, a third of forest and a third of water.

"Looks nice for a Lombax planet," said Ratchet, thinking about the Lombax that was supposed living on there with a Lombax egg. "I expected it to be more deserty like Fastoon. I guess the Lombaxes on there had a great life until the Great War. So Talwyn, was the thing that happened that a group of Lombaxes survived, and managed to keep breeding a small family until today, where only one remains?" Talwyn nodded, thinking about how they could be able to continue the Lombax race.

"Okay, Aphelion, you can get out of auto-pilot now," said Ratchet, distracting Talwyn from her thoughts as he grabbed the steering wheel. Aphelion turned towards the planet on the right and aimed straight for Lomtaber's atmosphere. Ratchet watched as white fluffy clouds filled their close-up view and quickly dissipated, showing them the lush green forests, blue flowing rivers, the beautiful golden sand, the sound of peaceful birds calling and feeding their hungry babies, and the sight of many stone monuments filling the world with mystery.

"Wow, this is better than I expected," said Ratchet, guessing that after the horrors of the Great War, the land repaired itself. "This would have been a wonderful place to live if I was a child back when everything was peaceful." For a moment, he imagined a civilisation of Lombaxes walking around, having stalls open and children playing near the river, and dreamt of life in peace.

"This is amazing! I would have loved to be a Lombax!" exclaimed Talwyn in excitement, waiting anxiously for Aphelion to land.

"So where should we land, guys?" asked Ratchet, getting Talwyn's hopes. Quickly and desperately, she looked all over the place for somewhere to land, and eventually decided as they got closer.

"How about over there, where there's a big dry and smooth patch to sit on safely?" she asked with a glimmered look on her face, weirding Ratchet out a little, but he nodded unenthusiastically. Once Talwyn had moved from her awkward position near Ratchet, he managed to grab the steering wheel and smoothly land on the dry patch of sand, having done this practice over a hundred times before.

Talwyn excited jumped out and almost fainted from the shock of the smooth perfect sand touching her feet. She quickly kissed the ground, finding that it tasted good too, before taking her shoes off and throwing them backwards into Qwark's face. "Ahhhhh…" she moaned as the sand enveloped the sides of her feet in an unusual bliss, and Ratchet and Clank shrugged to each other and jumped out too.

"Wow, this feels pretty good, and I hate sand," said Ratchet, taking his shoes off and letting his feet feel the comfortable warmth pressing against his feet and the glittering gold around them. "You coming out, Qwark?" Ratchet heard no response and looked back to Aphelion, noticing that Qwark was gone. Nearby, he heard a splashing sound and turned to his right to see that the childish Captain Qwark had took a dive in the river, but thankfully he wasn't skinny dipping.

"Typical Qwark," said Ratchet, and was surprised to see Talwyn and Clank running off and jumping in the river with him, and Ratchet was glad that there was no current. He then told himself that it was obvious, because everything on the planet was so still and unmoving, representing peace. He smiled, shook his head trying to fight the urge, but his brain decided and caused him to sprint all the way past the one row of trees blocking the shortcut and jumped in, causing Talwyn to scream from being splashed.

After the fun, relaxing play in the river, they dried themselves off on the perfectly cut grass on the edge of the river. Once they laid in silence, basking in the beautiful nature, they were dry enough to take off again. Ratchet and Qwark both picked up their wrench and pouch, having left them behind before jumping in the river, and began to walk with the others to search for the Lombax.

"So where should we search first?" asked Ratchet, turning around to look at the others.

"How about that temple right behind you?" asked Talwyn, pointing to somewhere above and behind Ratchet. He turned around and looked up above a forest of trees, and realised that a huge temple that looked like a pyramid except for four pillars erecting from it was sitting somewhere in the middle, covered with ivy and growing vines. Ratchet smiled, and began to trek towards the forest, hoping that it would be peaceful.

The ground in the forest was made of fallen tree branches and dead thick roots among the large green trees, the size of small office buildings. Ratchet was used to the rough terrain, but Talwyn found it to be a hassle to move through. As soon as they entered it earlier, darkness separated them and they had all accidentally split off into different directions, but thankfully, they all had the same destination.

Clank used his optical sensors to see through the dark and found the general direction of the temple, and decided to walk straight there, deeply hoping his other friends would be able to find their way. The trees and rough terrain were just a distraction for Clank, and he swiftly walked through the forest, and could start to see less roots and more sand appearing in the distance, followed by a dim light.

"Yes…" muttered Clank under his breath, barely able to see the dark stone skin of the pyramidal temple. Ratchet looked up and forwards as he slowly moved through the blinded forest, hearing the footsteps of his other friends nearby. He had realised earlier that his friends had been separated, and was unsure of their abilities to make their way through, except for Clank, who he knew was smart enough to fight a war and make his way back to the temple before the others.

"Where is the temple?" Ratchet asked himself, looking upwards. He could see mostly darkness, but was able to form a strange pattern in the distance, possibly the marks on the stone bricks of the temple. With no other option, he used little energy to traverse the forest and make his way towards the pattern, now able to see it clearly. However, due to the colour of the stone bricks, the darkness would cover it until he came close.

Talwyn Apogee exhaustedly tried stepping through the thick hard roots, tripping more than once. Her knees were covered with scrapes and bruises, and now understood why others didn't consider Lomtaber to be a heaven. "Ooh!" she exclaimed as her foot caused another root, but she managed to keep herself stable enough to not scrape her knees again.

Again, she tripped over and began to cry in frustration, but was confused at how what she tripped over didn't feel like a root or fallen branch. "Talwyn, is that you?" asked a familiar voice, which was easily recognisable. She groaned and groaned even more at the fact that she tripped over Captain Qwark's feet. Talwyn felt two arms grab hers and pull her upwards, and she was then clearly able to see Qwark's face.

"Seen Ratchet or Clank?" she asked rudely, not appreciative of Qwark's actions. Qwark shook his head, not realising that Talwyn wouldn't be able to see it, yet she knew what he meant and didn't care much. Leaving Qwark behind, she continued to trek through the forest, and was annoyed to find that he was following her lead in silence. Suddenly, Qwark ran ahead, seemingly being able to see the temple.

Clank ran as fast as he could until a light flashed in his face and was able to see, making him accidentally crash into a wall. His sight returned and he was left looking up at the familiar bright blue sky, and felt the perfect sand underneath him again. He sat up and looked around, finding that he was on a piece of dry sand around the black granite temple, and that there was enough space for Aphelion to land.

"Why did Talwyn have to get us to land near a river and have to go through a bloody forest?" Clank's anger was short-lived, and he stood up quickly, looking around to check out his surroundings and to see if any other of his friends arrived. "I'm guessing this "search" is just a vacation. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if we soon are thrown into ANOTHER real adventure. Evil just never stops."

"Uhhhh, Clank?" rasped Ratchet from somewhere behind him. Clank turned around and saw Ratchet emerging from the forest, supporting himself on a tree, trying to catch his breath again.

"Ratchet!" exclaimed Clank, running over to help his friend. Ratchet accidentally let his hand slip off the tree and fell into Clank's strong arms, which supported him back up.

"Thanks," said Ratchet, looking back to the dark forest. "That place is deadly!"

"Why, what happened?" asked Clank worriedly.

"Nothing, really," panted Ratchet. "I just wanted to get away from Qwark who almost found me again." Clank tried to contain himself, but the force was too strong for him to handle and he started crying with laughter. Ratchet shook his head pathetically, and finally noticed the temple in front of them. "Whoa, it's bigger than I expected!" He found himself drawn towards it, and felt the cold dark granite, giving him a smooth tingle in his body.

"Clank, if only you could register coldness," said Ratchet, closing his eyes. Eventually he opened them again, hearing footsteps somewhere and noticed as he turned around that Clank was touch the temple as well, confused. He finished turning around and saw Talwyn emerging with her arms crossed and angry look on her face, which made Ratchet confused.

"Ahhh," said Ratchet when he saw Qwark stumble out as well behind Talwyn, with twigs lying on his head. Talwyn was happy to see the temple, but her unhappy face told otherwise to her friends. Qwark brushed the twigs out of his hair, not bothering to say hello to anyone, and studied the temple from a distance, looking up the pyramidal pattern and the four erected pillars at the top.

"Hello, Ratchet," muttered Talwyn, pointing her thumb back to Qwark and rolling her eyes. Ratchet nodded in understanding, and looked back at Qwark, following his eyes towards the temple, and was impressed by the build. Talwyn viewed the temple's glory as well, imagining what it must have been like building it, but was confused why Clank was still standing in front of it as if he was frozen.

"Hey, Clank! What are you doing?" asked Talwyn to Clank, but she noticed he was talking to himself and was too busy to answer. Frustrated, she walked over to him and looked at what he was doing. She realised that he was inspecting the front of the temple, and found a large square crevice travelling from one side of the ground to the other, like…a door.

"Ratchet! Look at what Clank has found!" yelled Talwyn, grabbing Clank's attention and he suddenly connected back to the world, and wondered what was going on. "Ratchet!" she yelled again, and this time Ratchet did come over, muttering about how there was enough space to land Aphelion and that they didn't have to go through the annoying forest.

"What did he find?" asked Ratchet, looking at Clank and the part of the temple of him. "A door?" Talwyn nodded excitedly, and Ratchet was about to try to push it open until Qwark knocked him out of the way. He magically spun around and spontaneously changed into a detective suit and inspected the outside of the temple with a magnifying glass he had pulled out of nowhere.

"Judging by the age of the stones, it seems her that this temple is 78 gazillion years old! Hmm…" he spoke with all his concentration on the stone, and Ratchet got back up and brushed himself off after being pushed to the ground, and rolled his eyes at Qwark's idioticness. "AHA!" Ratchet and Talwyn were startled by Qwark's yelling. "This stone door here isn't a door at all, but a mirage used to trick fools! I call dibs on running through the wall."

Ratchet, Clank and Talwyn simultaneously facepalmed as Qwark jogged back to get a running start and skipped towards the wall and his body was literally flattened by the force of the collision. "There is nothing to indicate how to open the temple at all, because if running into the door doesn't work then pushing wouldn't," stated Talwyn as Qwark's body fell to the ground and returned to normal.

"How about common courtesy?" asked Ratchet as he stood in front of the door and knocked four times. He waited for ten seconds and softly said "Ahh" because no one answered. Talwyn shook her head jokingly at Ratchet's patheticness, and Ratchet sneered at her as he stepped away from the door sadly. "But yeah, there are no switches or buttons or ANYTHING!"

"Hmm, well maybe…" began Ratchet as Clank stepped backwards away from the group, and made sure that no-one saw him as he disappeared to the left side of the temple. He stood in front of it, again making sure that no-one was coming and whipped out his Zoni Geo-Laser power, and cut a smooth line straight up the temple and up the closest pillar on the right to him, not making a sound at all.

"Hey, Clank, do you know how to open the temple?" asked Ratchet to behind him, thinking that Clank was there, but he was really sliding his hands and feet in the gap he made with Geo-Laser to hold him there as he climbed the temple. "Clank?" he asked again, and both he and Talwyn looked behind them to notice that Clank was completely missing. "Clank! Where are you?"

"Do you think he may have gone back into the forest?" Talwyn asked pathetically.

"Really? You'd really think that he'd go back into that hellhole after that experience?" he asked rudely, not meaning to be angry.

"No," peeped Talwyn, scared at Ratchet's supposed frustration.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to get angry," Ratchet apologised, noticing that Talwyn was scared. "Qwark! Did you see Clank go anywhere?" He turned around and saw Qwark getting up and shaking his head, disappointing Ratchet again. "He probably just wandered off somewhere around the temple to check for clues. We should set up a campfire and make some food because it's already getting dark so we can greet Clank whenever he gets back."

Talwyn and Qwark both mumbled in agreement and they walked back into the forest, only in a straight line and small space so they wouldn't be lost, and got enough wood for a campfire. Since Qwark became "experienced" when a slave to the War Groks, he was surprisingly able to start the fire, and looked around the place for some food like on Grokley and came back with a pouch full of fruit from the bushes.

As the group gobbled down the fruit and mumbled about how good Qwark was searching for the food, Clank climbed up the closest pillar to the right, awkwardly overlapping his hands and feet up the crack in the temple. However, as Clank was easily able to see the environment of the planet, a mysterious and deadly presence crept up on the three happy and unaware companions.

Clank finally reached the end of the crack in the temple wall, but noticed that there was still a little space left to go. Daringly, he leaped upwards and felt his hands grab onto the top of the pillar, and he managed to pull himself up and was shocked to see a huge silhouette of his face printed on the top of the pillar. Over yonder, he saw Ratchet, Talwyn and Qwark's faces in silhouettes on the other three pillars close by.

"How? Someone knows we are here! This is going to be less peaceful than I thought," said Clank, walking around the silhouette of his face, and then looked over at the other ones. Trying to get closer he walked over his silhouette and touched the antenna of it, causing the silhouette to suddenly glow cyan and the shock plummeted him head-first towards the ground.

Talwyn finished her dinner and heard a familiar yelling coming from somewhere. Ratchet and Qwark heard it as well and joined Talwyn by looking around, and she finally looked up and saw Clank falling from the pillar. She gasped as his head hit the small level stone that was in front of the pillar and behind the main pyramid part of the temple and fell towards the ground. He landed in the arms of shadowy figure, which Ratchet was only able to see.

"Ratchet, my son…" whispered the shadowy figure, which turned out to be the figure of a Lombax, and Ratchet's eyes turned wide once he realised who he was.

"DAD!" yelled Ratchet, and he began to run towards his father's shape until he suddenly looked at the ground and a piercing ruptured his eyes. His vision became blurry and he lost all control of his body, and even felt a slap on his face. Lastly, he felt his head being plunged underwater and only when he swam to the top he noticed it was daytime again.

"Dad…" rasped Ratchet as his vision returned and felt that he was on the ground and the Clank and Talwyn was crouching over him, and Qwark was in front of him holding a metal bucket with a little water left in.

"Ratchet!" yelled Clank. "Your father died protecting the Dimensionator!" Ratchet groaned and looked up to see that the shadowy figure was no longer there and then remembered that Clank had been plummeting to his death and was now absolutely fine beside him.

"What happened to me and Clank?" he asked almost immediately, surprising Talwyn because she thought he wouldn't remember that quickly.

"Well, while Clank was falling to the ground," Talwyn began, recounting the events he had missed. "You passed out from the shock, and only I and Qwark saw Aphelion fly in and catch him." Ratchet was shocked at Aphelion's name, making him sit up and look at Aphelion on the left side of the temple, right behind the crack Clank cut with the Geo-Laser.

Soon after Talwyn told her story, they helped Ratchet recover from blacking out, and later when it was sunset and Talwyn and Qwark had gone off to find more food, Clank approached Ratchet. "You are probably wondering how I fell." He didn't wait for Ratchet's answer and immediately told the story. "I used my Geo-Laser to climb up the height of the temple, but at the top of the four pillars were our four faces in silhouettes. Me, you, Talwyn and Qwark. I think someone knows about us, and we may be going into a trap, but it's our only lead. I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen that we don't want to."

"Wait," said Ratchet, trying to take this in. "So you are telling me that someone is waiting for us?" Clank nodded slowly, trying to think about anything that would tell otherwise. "Do you think it might be a sign from Max Apogee or Angela?"

"Maybe, but it would be very unusual. The only way to find out would be to step on each of our faces, which I have figured out to be a key."

"How?"

"When I was on my pillar, I accidentally stepped on the antenna of mine and it lit up, and shock knocked me off the edge. I didn't touch any other part of the silhouette so it must be footprint-activated."

"So should we tell Talwyn and Qwark?"

"Yes, we should." Ratchet and Clank quickly separated Talwyn and Qwark once they came back from grabbing the food, and Ratchet explained to Talwyn what happened while stuffing down wild grapes. Clank did the same to Qwark, but had to repeat his story a few times as for some parts Qwark didn't listen because he was too busy eating. Talwyn and Qwark both reluctantly agreed to go, but only after they ate their early dinner.

Eventually, after the filling meal, they managed to pile into Aphelion, with Qwark and Talwyn sitting in the back uncomfortably. "Aphelion, go to the top of the temple and stop at each of the pillars, so we can each hop out."

"Yes, Ratchet," she said, and she flew straight up into the sky, and leveled out at Clank's pillar. The top opened and Clank jumped out, and watched as Aphelion flew to the bottom-left pillar and Ratchet jumped out, and the same with Talwyn and Qwark at the top-left and top-right pillars, respectively.

"WOW! Look at the view!" exclaimed Talwyn, being able to see the dark clouds close by, dancing with the yellow sun to create a pink sky, and also being able to see the environment of the planet around her, even beautiful at night. She turned around and noticed that Qwark, Ratchet and Clank were all waiting for her, and once she straightened herself up, they simultaneously stepped on their silhouettes.

BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG!

The silhouettes all lighted up blindingly in amongst the dark clouds and pink skies around them, and after a small dramatic pause, all of the pillars began to shake violently, causing them all to fall over as they desperately tried to stay on. Qwark was knocked backwards off the side and clung for dear life, and he realised that the pillars were descending into the temple and into the ground.

For once in his life, Qwark was smart and when the edge of the top of the temple was close enough, he jumped on it and sidled himself on the pillar's edge, and watched it fall down into the temple, and jumped back on to go down with his friends. For a moment, he thought he had made a mistake when he lost sight of his friends in the darkness, and could only see the light from the gap above where the pillar fitted in.

"Whoa…" echoed a bunch of familiar voices from somewhere unknown, which were obviously Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank exclaiming at the darkness. Qwark felt uneasy but reassured himself because of the light above, but squirmed in fear when he saw a door slide over the gap and block the light from getting in. Talwyn squealed as she heard a slamming sound with her eyes closed from the closing doors above her.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Ratchet as the shaking pillars shook his body and made it jump up and down. Finally, the pillars reached the floor of the temple and the miniature earthquake stopped completely. Everyone except Qwark (whose eyes were already open) opened their eyes, and wondered if they actually did because they could not see a single thing.

"Hello? Ratchet, Clank? Anyone? It's pitch black in here," everyone squabbled as Ratchet carefully walked around the space was in, and he crouched down. Then, he ran his hand along the surface of the pillar until he reached the edge and saw a green forcefield blocking his hand from going any further. The tracking device on his belt lit up, surprising everyone, and Ratchet checked it to see that it was still tracking some presence, but still seemed to be broken somehow.

"Ratchet, is that your tracking device?" asked Clank once the noise settled down. Ratchet didn't answer his question and noticed that he could use it as a light source. He looked behind him and to the right of him and saw that there were walls, so after a few calculations, he guessed that Clank was in front of him and Talwyn was to the left of him. He shone the light in front of him and eventually spotted Clank's face, and he blocked the blinding light with his hand.

"Wow, that's clever using the light from the tracking device as a torch!" exclaimed Talwyn as the light shone in her face too, and Ratchet noticed an impressed and flattered smile on her face. He shone the light around the room and saw Qwark diagonally across from him, and found something at the middle of the room, and on closer inspection, it was an egg with yellow and brown fuzzy stripes streaming across it.

"Is that…" began Ratchet.

"…the Lombax egg?" finished Talwyn, gazing that the familiar furry pattern on the egg that associated itself with Lombaxes. "I've never seen a Lombax egg before, and I never even knew they existed. However, for some reason, my father never seemed to have come here, even with the silhouettes of ourselves. It's like we are characters in a story, and whoever put those silhouettes there knows exactly what we are going to do, like an author."

"How are we going to get to it?" asked Qwark, ignoring Talwyn's thoughts put into words. "We are trapped by forcefields." Clank pondered deeply for a moment while the others thought uselessly, and he then noticed a tiny yellow button above each pillar, under the doors that blocked the light.

"Ratchet! Use your wrench to hit that button above you!" Ratchet looked up and understood, quickly tossing up his wrench towards the ceiling and the handle of it bumped the button, lowering the forcefield around Ratchet. As soon as he was able to, he sprinted towards the egg positioned neatly on the ground and scooped it up. He felt a rumble, one smaller than the one that shook the pillars, and he heard a door scraping open.

"Ratchet! Look out above you!" yelled Talwyn and he looked upwards to see a metal door moving backwards, and light covered his face, allowing him to see Talwyn, Qwark, Clank and the four robot-like warriors positioned around the egg, unsheathing their katanas and holding a pensive stance. The warriors were in dark black jumpsuits, and wore helmets that stretched out, almost looking like Cronk's head, except their view mirror was grey.

"Ninjas? Seriously?" asked Ratchet, who ducked as the four ninjas lunged at him, and crashed into each in mid-air, falling onto Ratchet who grabbed each of them and threw them away. Wanting to help, Talwyn whipped out her pistol and fired it upwards, destroy the button but also activating it, allowing her to move out of the forcefield and help in Ratchet's fight.

"I never expected us to ever face against a group of ninjas," said Talwyn to Ratchet, who smiled and was then distracted by three of the ninjas weaving in and around him, trying to find a spot to attack him, but he kept blocking them with his wrench. The fourth ninja decided to not help his fellow warriors and go rogue by charging at Talwyn, but she easily took him out with one bullet from her pistol.

Once Talwyn started firing at the other ninjas, they realised that their opponents were too defensive for them to attack. They ejected wings from a flat device on their back, and rocketed around the one main room of the temple, throwing their katanas at them, and collecting them again as they swept over the ground to the other side. Ratchet tried throwing his wrench and Talwyn tried firing at them, but their aerial agility was too strong for them to attack.

"Good thing I brought this," said Ratchet once he and Talwyn were back to back, and he pulled out the Mindrol and octahedron out of nowhere and popped the blue rhombus, before firing up the robot to it's full size. It floated level to the ninja's positions and started rapidly firing yellow bolts out of it hands across the room, mostly hitting the walls, but some injured the ninjas and two of them were grounded by the damage to their wings.

Suddenly, a laser attacked the two grounded ninjas and they exploded into nothing, and Ratchet turned around to see that the forcefield had been destroyed by the robot's firing and Clank had fired his Geo-Laser at the two ninjas. Ratchet smiled at his friend, and the remaining ninja took this time to get behind the robot and pressed a button on it's neck, causing it to be immobile and no more use to Ratchet for the moment.

"Gah!" he yelled as he tried to get it to work, but was stopped in his tracks when Qwark smothered him in a loving hug. Qwark's weight bumped the Mindrol and the metal robot turned back into it's octahedral form and plummeted towards him.

He yelped in pain as he felt the steel heavy octahedron hit him and float next to him, and a pink bump quickly rose on his noggin. The ninja snickered evilly, and then continued it's attack, just barely missing Ratchet and causing him to be alert again, and he then realised that now he had no way of attack and eventually he would be damaged. He looked at Talwyn, who was sharing his thoughts and she started getting teary.

Out of nowhere, a yellow blur popped in and, as if it was travelling at light speed, swooped the team out of the room and through the door as if it were paper. They fell to ground and all sat up immediately. In front of them was a fuzz-covered creature that looked just like Kaden, except he had the brown eyes of an assassin, and sported a goatee. He wore a left-sided blue singlet and tattered tanned leather trousers.

He turned to Ratchet and ordered, "Give me the child. It belongs to Angela and I."

Chapter 4 Preview

"_HELP US, TALWYN!" yelled someone almost immediately when Talwyn opened the message. The camera filming the sender was too snowy for Talwyn and Ratchet to see who it was, but Talwyn found the voice strikingly familiar. Blasts of gunfire exploded in the distance, coming from the comlink making Ratchet and Talwyn even more worried._

"_Hello! Is there anyone in trouble? I'm sure that voice is familiar," she said, failing the communicate with the sender. Eventually, an eligible picture formed amongst the snow, and Talwyn was able to understand that the location was her home at the Apogee Space Station. Blue bolts of enemy fire shot across the screen, and a pair of running and screaming robots followed them in fear._


	4. A Red Herring

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After Talwyn runs away on the Apogee Spaceship, Ratchet finds her and leaves, only to find that the Apogee Spaceship warped again after they left. O__n the planet Lomtaber, the gang discovers a Lombax temple. Clank sneakily climbs the temple and almost gets killed, but help the rest get into it. Inside they find the mysterious Lombax egg being protected by four ninjas, and after obtaining it find themselves in grave danger. However, a Lombax who claims to be the egg's father saves them and demands the egg._

_Chapter 4: A Red Herring_

From space, sunset looked beautiful. Throughout the peaceful stars glistening in the never-ending night, a planet's sunset completed the beauty of space. Everyday, the Woldgon Galaxy was peaceful, with the occasional hum of a trading space vehicle or the occasional whirr of an adventurer leaving or entering the galaxy. It had been 3000 years since a battle had erupted in the ecstatic shine of stars. Yet, that was about change soon.

Planet: Dethrona

Location: A cloning facility in the desert.

When: Two planetary rotations after the Lombax egg was found on Lomtaber.

Four purple neon circular lights attached to the wall were the only source of light in the pitch black prison room. Four purple neon circular lights lined up side-by-side, studying the injured and exhausted figures of Ratchet, Talwyn, Clank and Qwark, respectively. Four purple neon circular lights revealed the metal cages that the group was squashed in, trying to discover a source of breath for their exhausted lungs.

Ratchet was trapped in chains around his wrists and ankles as he sat on the ground and a sickly green ooze dripped from a crack in the ceiling onto his fuzzy yellow and brown ears. After being unconscious for hours, he finally woke up and was the first one to raise his head from his knees while everyone cowered in sadness. "Wha…Where am I?" asked Ratchet weakly, looking around the place, being able to see Talwyn, Clank and Qwark to the left of him. "How did we get into this prison?"

"You don't remember?" asked Talwyn, raising her head as well, and she looked over at the damaged body of Ratchet. One of his ears had been sliced off and a bandage had been placed there, but was slowly being pushed off as the ear grew back. His arms and legs were full of bruises, and he was sure that one of his fingers had been broken mysteriously, because he couldn't remember what had happened.

"Remember what was mentioned he was thrown into his cell? Apparentally, he was knocked unconscious in an explosion," answered Clank, raising his head as well, and Talwyn then noticed a huge dent in it.

"WHAT EXPLOSION?" yelled Ratchet, startling Talwyn and Clank, but they were used to yelling because of a certain person they came across when being thrown in prison. They were too shocked to explain anything, so Qwark raised his wet head, trying to speak through his tears. "I'll explain," said Qwark proudly, his voice still having that crying tone to it. "The story goes like this…"

* * *

2 planetary rotations ago, the group were fighting four ninjas on Lomtaber, and defeated three of them, but as the last one was about to kill them, a yellow blur whooshed into the temple and collected them, before going back out the temple. It turned out to be a Lombax, who demanded them to give him the egg, claiming that it was the child of him and Angela. Now, they stood outside the temple at sunset, and the Lombax was standing in front of them, ready to attack.

"I said give me the egg, or you'll regret it," said the Lombax in a gruff voice. Talwyn, Qwark and Clank all looked at Ratchet, with mixed feelings on what they should do. Qwark was typically a coward and wanted him to hand the egg over, but Talwyn and Clank knew that it was the right thing to not hand it over immediately because they could be walking into a trap.

"Not yet," said Ratchet. "We need to know if your trustworthy."

"GIVE ME THE EGG!" roared the Lombax, causing the fur on Ratchet's skin to be blown back by the air. "IT BELONGS TO ME!"

"He won't listen…" mumbled Talwyn, and while they continued to bicker with the Lombax, Qwark tried thinking of an escape plan. Eventually, when the Lombax began to turn red and move towards them in anger, he yelled out, causing him to stop in shock.

"We'll give you the egg!" exclaimed Qwark, forming a vicious smile on the Lombax's mouth while the others looked at Qwark in anger and disbelief. "Only if you can catch all of us when we hide in the forest!" Qwark pulled Ratchet with him (causing the egg to fall into Talwyn's hands) as he sprinted towards the forest, with a confused Talwyn and Clank running behind.

The Lombax gritted his teeth in hatred and frustration, and watched as Talwyn and Clank ran into the darkness, separated from Ratchet and Qwark. Qwark noticed that the darkness enveloped them and he jumped over a large log and pushed Ratchet down behind it. "Listen, get straight to Aphelion while us three distract the Lombax, and pick us up when we are all found!"

Before Ratchet could answer or comment on how smart Qwark was being, the green figure sprinted off out of his blinded sight. As he stood up, he tried to make sense of what was going on, and then reassured himself that all he needed to do was get Aphelion and escape from this non-sensical plot. After one heavy sigh, he ran as fast as he could, jumped and skipping over every obstacle that got in his way.

"I hope he isn't after me," panted Ratchet, stopping for a brief moment, before shooting off again. Talwyn heard the sounds of the early crickets working as she struggled to navigate her way through the unforgiving forest. She was extremely frustrated as to why Qwark would throw them back into the treacherous forest, which slowed her down greatly.

"DAMN YOU, QWARK!" she exclaimed, and quickly covered her mouth when she realised that her voice had echoed and probably alarmed the Lombax. She quickly looked around for the Lombax and began to step backwards, keeping an eye on what was going on. Talwyn's foot hit the top of a log and she fell backwards, sliding off onto the dry mud. Desperately, she used the log to help herself up, and took one step back before feeling a cold hand grasp her shoulder tightly.

"You…" said the Lombax's voice from behind her, causing her to gasp and try to run away. The Lombax grabbed her other shoulder with all his strength, preventing her from getting away, and Talwyn was forced to turn around. She shuddered at the Lombax's menacing face and shook her head in fear as she was brought closer to his lips.

"No…" she whimpered as Talwyn's lips were forced to meet the Lombax's in a rough and hurtful kiss. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she was thankful that it was only a kiss, and not something much worse. Her heart beated even faster when she felt his right hand grip her body and began to move downwards to her pants.

"HI-YA!" yelled a familiar nerdy voice as Clank jumped from a nearby tree branch and kicked the back of the Lombax's head in mid-air as his hand was just about to reach inside Talwyn's underwear. The force knocked both the Lombax and Talwyn down, and she saw a glimpse of a sad expression which soon turned to an angry one when he turned around to fight the little robot.

Clank bounced off the same tree's trunk and rebounded towards him for a kick, but with only moving his arm he was caught the Lombax and electrocuted by a taser from the Lombax's belt. "Clank!" exclaimed Talwyn, and she then noticed the Lombax coming back towards her with his hands reaching for her breasts. She backed herself against a tree and closed her eyes, waiting for her gruesome fate, before hearing some rockets roaring like lions.

The giant metal robot owned by Ratchet drifted through the canopy of the trees, blowing dead leaves in the Lombax's face to blind him as the robot's hand retracted and an air sucker popped out. It was aimed at Talwyn and she wondered what it was going to do, and squealed as she was dragged along the ground and picked up by the surrounding air, causing her to head straight towards the sucker.

Quickly, the robot's hand reappeared and grabbed Talwyn before she fell back down, and she made an insulting face to the Lombax who watched as she was pulled upwards. She felt good to be away from the darkness of everything that had just happened and was glad to see a fresh blue sky and Aphelion hovering in it, with Ratchet and Qwark inside. This is when she realised that they had no clue about what had happened to Clank.

"Hey, Talwyn! Is Clank down there?" shouted Ratchet as she was lifted into the back and the metal robot was disabled again. He looked back and saw that Talwyn wasn't looking at him and was twiddling her thumbs nervously? "Talwyn, where is Clank?" She looked up at him and began to mumble an incoherent sentence, and by the expression on Ratchet's face she knew that he didn't understand.

"The Lombax….has him…" whispered Talwyn, causing Ratchet to scream out in anger and immediately close the Aphelion's top. He grabbed the steering wheel and flew back into the canopy where the Lombax was, but unfortunately with the limited sight, it seemed that the Lombax had already left. Ratchet's eye twitched in anger, before slowly flying back out and through the atmosphere out into space, having given up.

While Talwyn was confused as to why Ratchet had given and left Lomtaber, he looked back and smiled evilly. She looked back as well and realised that the Lombax had fallen into Ratchet's trap by following them in his ship. He had been injured when leaving the forest, and had a cut on his cheek, but instead of the normal red Lombax blood oozing out, there was a blue purple mixture gushing out slightly…

* * *

Qwark's voice croaked badly as he finished. He was glad to have Clank and Talwyn whispering the things he didn't see to them, and he announced them to Ratchet, and sometimes Clank or Talwyn when they weren't speaking "Excuse me, can someone else speak?" He pointed to Talwyn and she shrugged her shoulders as Ratchet and Clank looked at her, waiting for her to speak.

"Well, let's start with one thing Qwark didn't explain, which was that the ship that d-excuse me-the Lombax was in was my ship! So I thought at the time that he stole the Apogee Spaceship and was hiding on it when we were on board." She looked down at the gritty brown and grey floor, and wondered how she could be so wrong about the supposed Lombax.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" yelled a maniacal laugh from a nearby room, causing Talwyn to shudder and gulp at the same time.

"Now, as I was saying…" Talwyn stopped in mid sentence and looked blankly at the air. "Oh yeah, that's right. That was when Cronk and Zephyr contacted us." Talwyn shuddered again as she heard the laughter once more, but managed to push on with the story.

* * *

After arguing to Qwark about who gets to sit on the front seat, Talwyn finally won the battle by threatening that she would use a Personal Hygienator on Qwark, knowing that he was the creator of the terrifying product. She quickly gave a friendly smile to Ratchet, who distracted his piloting enough to smile back, and she began fiddling around with the console, looking around for anything fun.

Ratchet looked backwards and saw that the Lombax in Talwyn's ship was still on the trail, and they managed to keep him a steady length behind them. He knew that because he wasn't going at full speed, the Lombax was aiming to take them out from a distance. Turning back around, he noticed Talwyn struggling with the console, trying to unlock some episodes of a show she loved, but Aphelion hated. "Need some help with that?" he asked to Talwyn, who was sucking her finger after Aphelion zapped it.

"Yes, please. I don't why Aphelion keeps this stuff if she doesn't like it," she wondered, looking at her wet finger, noticing that it would be okay. Ratchet didn't even bother asking Aphelion to auto-pilot, because she did it anyway when she spiralled out of the pilot's control unintentionally, and he crouched down next to Talwyn to try and unlock the episodes.

"I keep this junk, because my waste bin is full after the Cragmites that dumped me uploaded all their favourite music and HV shows," spoke Aphelion, having been usually quiet while Ratchet adventured, not wanting to get in his way. She noticed that Ratchet was going into the private areas of Aphelion's dasbase and began to panic. "Don't! Please don't Ratchet!"

Aphelion had no control as Ratchet tapped into the "programmer's control" area and turned it on, allowing him to go anywhere he wanted with no restraint. "There," he said, and he moved out of Talwyn's way, who went back to the main menu, and found out that a message was incoming. She turned her head to Ratchet, who noticed the message as well, and he nodded to her.

"HELP US, TALWYN!" yelled someone almost immediately when Talwyn opened the message. The camera filming the sender was too snowy for Talwyn and Ratchet to see who it was, but Talwyn found the voice strikingly familiar. Blasts of gunfire exploded in the distance, coming from the comlink making Ratchet and Talwyn even more worried.

"Hello! Is there anyone in trouble? I'm sure that voice is familiar," she said, failing the communicate with the sender. Eventually, an eligible picture formed amongst the snow, and Talwyn was able to understand that the location was her home at the Apogee Space Station. Blue bolts of enemy fire shot across the screen, and a pair of running and screaming robots followed them in fear.

"CRONK AND ZEPHYR!" yelled Talwyn as a laser hit Aphelion, barely damaging her. The pair stopped, and Cronk ran right up and filled his face right up at the screen, screaming unintelligibly while Zephyr stood guard and tried to hold off the attackers. Talwyn knew that they were in some kind of trouble and decided to help them at the Space Station, but before she could tell Ratchet, he was already preparing the grav-o-metric warp drive.

"Cragmites!" Cronk finally yelled, causing Talwyn to stop in her tracks and looked at Cronk in disbelief!

"Cragmites? What do you mean Cragmites? We sent them to another dimension!" Talwyn asked in confusion, wondering how the Cragmites could have been attacking them. Cronk began yelling unintelligibly again, and suddenly stopped when a bolt nearly hit them, and he began to fire back the supposed Cragmites, leaving Zephyr to explain things to Talwyn.

"Them there Cragimites went and attacked us, and I think they are looking for ya. I don't know how they are back, but I don't see Tachyon with 'em," said Zephyr in his usual voice, and Ratchet was shocked at how Talwyn could understand him easily.

"Well, they are going to get me. Hold them off until I come and sort things out, okay?" said Talwyn, sitting back in her chair.

"Sure thing, Talwyn," said Zephyr, who quickly turned the camera off and started shooting back at the armed unseen Cragmites. Talwyn relaxed in her chair for a moment, and then strapped the optional seatbelt on, knowing that the ride back to Polaris could be bumpy. Qwark was already cowering in fear as Ratchet finally finished preparing the grav-o-metic warp drive, and activated it immediately.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Ratchet, noticing that they should disappear immediately, but a green and red wavy energy beam surrounded the front half of Aphelion, as if it was trying to warp but just couldn't.

"It's seems that the grav-o-metric warp drive has been damaged somehow, and is only working at 20% efficiency," said Aphelion, once again usually giving a damage report.

"I guess that laser that hit us damaged the warp drive," said Ratchet, looking back at Talwyn's ship. He realised that the Lombax had probably noticed they were trying to warp, and knew that he would plan something to stop them. He looked back forward and saw that the warping process was about three quarters of the way completed. "Hurry up, will ya?"

The three of them heard something hit Aphelion, and Ratchet and Talwyn gave Qwark the liberty of checking the back of her. Shaking, he managed to get on his knees and look out, easily spotting a latch that had been fired, attaching Talwyn's ship to Aphelion. "Hey, he's using my tether!" yelled Talwyn, having noticed the latch as well as Qwark.

"He will warp with us, won't he?" asked Ratchet, realising that he will still be on their tail and noticing that the warping process was almost complete. "Aphelion, stop the…" He heard a sucking sound and suddenly found himself staring at the Apogee Space Station. "…warping process,' he finished, knowing that he had failed to stop it.

"Ratchet, look!" yelled Talwyn, who was still looking behind them. He turned around and saw Talwyn's ship still in the warp hole, racing towards the closing exit. As the tip reached outwards, the hole finished closing and latch was forced to be released, although since a part of the ship came out, the whole ship was still intact, except disabled.

"HAHA!" they all cheered as Aphelion drifted away from the fuming Lombax and his disabled ship, heading towards the Apogee Space Station, Their celebration stopped, however, when Talwyn heard the gunfire and saw the smoke and fire coming from her home below. Her heart racing, she knew that she had to fulfull her duty and allowed Ratchet to pilot Aphelion down to the landing pad, just outside the Space Station.

Watching the top of Aphelion open up for her fight, she waited for a few moments, and to Ratchet's dismay she slowly hopped out, causing a great deal of worry for her friend. Stepping onto the surprisingly still functioning transporter, she turned around and looked at her companion Ratchet, and smiled when she saw Qwark moving to the front seat, hoping they will both be okay, and a tearing rolled down her eye as the blue energy enveloped her and swallowed her up.

At the last moment, Ratchet grabbed his Combustor from the trunk in the back and tossed it to Talwyn, watching it disappear with her in the light. He hoped that she would understand that he could not join her in battle, because of the Lombax in pursuit who would cause the same situation on Lomtaber, except worse with the Cragmites somehow crawling around the station.

Talwyn felt the control reaching back into her body, but her legs failed from the sudden grasp of control and she fell on her knees, realising that the transporter was damaged a little, causing a bumpy ride. She looked up and saw Cronk and Zephyr blasting away at the invading types of Cragmites. The Station was filled with Cragpoles, Cragmite Warriors, Cragmite Hunters and more, and she could see why Cronk and Zephyr would need help.

Realising that her simple blaster would have enough bullets nor firepower to take out many of the Cragmites, she almost gave up hope. However, she cheekily smiled when Ratchet's Combustor spawned next to her, and she was given the opinion that Ratchet was indeed smart by giving her a reasonable weapon. After picking it up, she rolled to the wall and crawled across the side to join Cronk and Zephyr, blasting some of the Cragmites closest to them.

"Talwyn, so you finally decided to help us?" asked Cronk, knowing that she was there, even though he hadn't distracted himself enough to look.

"You do realise that was in some trouble of my own?" asked Talwyn rudely, standing up and sidling to Cronk and Zephyr's side.

"Chasing after your boyfriend again?" asked Zephyr, his concentration on killing the Cragmite's still strong.

"Ratchet is not my boyfriend! I'm just helping him find Angela so he can help me find my father!" yelled Talwyn, scaring most of the Cragmites and causing them to stop in their tracks. Talwyn giggled at the Cragmite's cowardice and pointed the Combustor at them, but was overcome by some mercy and did not have the heart to pull the trigger.

"What do you fools think you are doing?" spat a high-pitched aching voice that was very familiar to Talwyn, but she was too busy fighting to notice it. The Cragmites realised what they were doing and began advancing and blasting at the threesome with bad aim, barely damaging any of them.

"You guys, why didn't you escape through the transporter?" asked Talwyn, knowing that there was an escape.

"We wanted to protect your home, because it's all you have left," said Cronk.

"That's not true, I've still got Ratchet…" began Talwyn.

"You mean your boyfriend?" Zephyr rudely butted in.

"Ratchet's not my BOYFRIEND!" screamed Talwyn, as a Cragpole stepped on one of it's mates and jumped high in the air, soaring over Talwyn and smashing his claw into the transporter, deactivating it. "We're boned…" Talwyn weeped as the Cragmites advanced towards them, and she realised that it was her end, and that she would not win the battle at all.

Talwyn, along with Cronk and Zephyr, and quickly turned around and sprinted towards the back of the small transporter room, and backed themselves against the wall, still hoping they could survive from the attack. A Cragmite Hunter ran up to them quickly and avoided the gunfire, before lunging at Cronk. Talwyn quickly kicked the foul beast off, and accidentally hit the shut down switch while her leg was coming down, forcing Cronk to fall to the ground, lifeless.

"No, Cronk!" yelled Talwyn, looking around for the switch to turn him back on. She heard the growls of Cragmites, and looked behind her to see Zephyr backed up in the corner, surrounded by Cragmites. She left Cronk and kicked two Cragmites out of the way so she could reach Zephyr, and she quickly turned him off so the attention would be shifted away from him.

As the angry Cragmites slowly creeped towards Talwyn, hissing her, she knew that she was doomed with the Cragmites at the front waiting for her to run towards them. She then realised that there was something different about the Cragmites. They had a different colour scheme to what she last saw and they all had scars on their right cheeks. Her fears were confirmed when she heard a robotic walker stepping towards her.

Emperor Pervical Tachyon was moving his way through the Cragmite crowd as they moved out of the way and he stopped in front of the scared Talwyn. "Bahahahahahaha! You have no idea how I survived, but I'm bigger than ever and I have my companions to prove it! Now take her away before she works out anymore!" One of the Cragmites scuttled over to her and knocked her viciously to the ground with his strong claw, and her consciousness slowly faded away…

"R-r-r-atchet…"

* * *

"Wait, Tachyon is back?" asked Ratchet, having gained some strength back into his voice box.

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that, and now only Qwark is left to tell you about what happened afterwards," said Talwyn, looking over at Qwark, who opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by Ratchet.

"But why did you say my name like that?" he asked curiously, giving her a cheeky smile.

"Because I was thinking about you two in Aphelion and the Lombax, and your name was first to be said by me before I fainted," said Talwyn with a lot of emphasis, rolling her eyes from Ratchet's silliness. Silence passed for a few seconds, before Talwyn realised that Qwark was supposed to be speaking. "Hurry up, Qwark!"

* * *

"Did you just hear something?" asked Ratchet, swearing he heard someone shout his name in the distance.

"Concentrate, Ratchet," nagged Qwark, biting his fingernails in fear. "Or we may be breakfast!"

"It's toast, Qwark," corrected Ratchet, looking back to see that the Lombax finally powered Talwyn's ship back up and was on their trail again, looking for a good shot at them.

"I DON'T CARE!" roared Qwark. Ratchet's eyes widened and he froze in fear until another laser smashed Aphelion's rear, throwing Ratchet's head straight into the steering wheel. "Ratchet?" He pushed Ratchet's body which fell over with no resistance whatsoever. Qwark realised that Ratchet had fainted, and so he decided to take the Lombax himself by distracting him.

"Take a deep breath," said Qwark to himself, before quickly opening the top of Aphelion, and closed it before Ratchet suffocated. As he fought against the zero-gravity, he reminded himself about the time that he fought Ratchet at Oltanis' orbit, and was able to breathe in space thanks to an oxygen field around him, supplied by his green leotard. Once he reached the edge of Aphelion, he jumped and let his body slip off her.

"What the?" yelled the Lombax when he saw a green figure drifting towards him quickly. Before he could react, Qwark was on top of Talwyn's ship, and slipped down to the window, blocking the Lombax's vision and making him try and shake Qwark off, to no avail. Qwark looked back and saw Mukow in the distance, and the Lombax was aiming towards it to try and burn Qwark in the atmosphere.

Qwark finally managed to open the top of Talwyn's ship, but was immediately kicked away by the Lombax, and he managed to grab onto the front. The ship pointed downwards and began to drift towards the underside of Mukow, so the Lombax was forced to pull it upwards, giving Qwark the momentum to leap to the cockpit and get inside.

The Lombax pulled out a pistol, but Qwark stomped on his hand, cutting off the circulation temporarily, and he proceeded to try and throw the Lombax out. Keeping the top of Talwyn's ship open, he grabbed the Lombax's shoulders and crawled out of the tiny cockpit. He tried to throw the Lombax away, but he gained his strength back and tossed Qwark to the side, watching as he desperately grabbed onto the right wing.

"Haha!" cheered the Lombax victorious. He quickly sat back inside the one seat and closed the top of Talwyn's ship, and boosted the engines to maximum so Qwark wouldn't have a chance. Qwark closed his eyes and powered up his body, and didn't bother opening his eyes until after he had landed back on the ship. He ran as fast as the vortex would allow him until he kicked the top back up and squashed the Lombax in an awkward hug.

"Get off, you fool! I can't believe you've come so far after I tricked you into thinking you were my son!" the Lombax yelled, his last comment confusing Qwark greatly. His confusions aside, Qwark closed the top of the ship and brace himself as they almost immediately entered the atmosphere of Mukow. After a long period of seeing only green, the Lombax managed to shift his head enough to see the Imperial Fight Festival nearby, now transformed into a simple friendly battle arena for aspiring heroes to train their fighting skills with only stunning weapons.

His leg showed a glimpse of freedom, and with lightning speed, the Lombax kicked Qwark away, smashing him into the right hand wall. Qwark retorted by doing the same thing to the Lombax, and this time he was damaged enough to allow Qwark to quickly land at the Imperial Fight Festival. He opened the top quickly and was too scared to shut it, and sprinted into the Imperial Fight Festival as the Lombax regained his strength.

"Please welcome our new challenger!" yelled the announcer as Qwark bolted in, and he realised that he was being mistaken for a new contestant. Qwark tried to explain things, but nobody in the crowd was listening and were just roaring cheers. Two Hug-Me-Tight Nanny Bots spawned out to test Qwark's skills, however these were tamed since he last came to Mukow.

"Looks like I'll have to," muttered Qwark, before getting ready to strike the Nanny Bot on the left. He was thrown to the ground by the mysterious Lombax who reappeared after being damaged, but Qwark strength was enough to throw him off so that he landed in between the two confused Nanny Bots. The both stood up to face each other, but instead of fighting, the Lombax pressed a button on his belt.

"Wait, that's a Hologuise!" yelled Qwark as a yellow light enveloped the Lombax's wrists and head, and he suddenly exploded into a new person. That new person was far too familiar to Qwark, as he was met before as Qwark's father, but was actually Emperor Otto Destruct. Without saying a word, he whipped out two portable machines and used them to electrify the Hug-Me-Tight Nanny Bots.

"Otto!" yelled Qwark in shock as the Nanny Bots malfunctioned and began to chase after Qwark. "You were the one who captured Clank!" Qwark noticed that the Nanny Bots were about to hug him, so he sprinted back out of the arena, leaving the announcer and crowd in shock. The Nanny Bots sped up and chased Qwark out of the arena, at around the speed of a Hoverbike.

Qwark ran through the grassy corridors, surrounded by crates and metallic walls, able to be faster than the Hug-Me-Tight Nanny Bots. Emperor Otto Destruct viewed this chase through the ship he stole from Talwyn, and knew that the chase was about to end. As Qwark rounded another corner, a giant metal robotic foot slammed down in front of him, stopping the chase.

"What the?" asked Qwark, as he looked upwards and was finally able to see the gigantic, cyborg face of Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek. The Nanny Bots stopped behind Qwark, and were seemingly programmed to wait as Drek looked down at the small Captain Qwark. He smiled and at the same time shrunk to his normal puny size, his whole body robotic, except half of the skin on his face was intact, along with his squishy brain.

"Hello again, you impudent fool!"

* * *

"And that's it. That's all I remember before I woke up here!" said Qwark, still in the dank cold cell.

"So, wait! What's going on? Tachyon, Otto and Drek? Who's next, Vox?" asked Ratchet sarcastically.

"That you would be right for once," spoke the gruff voice of Gleeman Vox, stepping out the dark shadows.

"Wait a minute, I saw your hand floating in space after the station exploded! How did YOU survive?" asked Ratchet weakly, finding it hard to believe that four of his previous villains were actually alive.

"I have my ways of misleading. But if you want to know what happened to you, I will gladly tell you because it will shame you greatly," said Vox, jeering Ratchet.

"Shoot," said Ratchet, being colloquial in wanting him to tell him. Vox quickly pulled out a pistol and shot Ratchet, but missed, only scorching the tip of his ear.

"I will if you keep this up. But I know you want me to tell you, so here you go."

_**BREAK**_

Gleeman Vox stood in the main room of the Apogee Space Station, looking at floor of dead Cragmites and his troopers looking for the lifeless bodies of Cronk and Zephyr in the transporter room, but to no avail. Tachyon had taken Talwyn back to the prison but could not find Cronk and Zephyr, so Vox was given the boring job of finding the two lost robots.

He heard the elevator rising and turned around to look at the door opening. The figure of the Lombax known as Ratchet stared at Gleeman Vox and the olive dressed soldiers around him. Before he could say anything, Vox walked menacingly towards him and towered over the tiny Lombax's body. Ratchet grabbed out his Omniwrench and smacked Vox in the eye, and he fell back a bit.

"Take him away!" Vox yelled, rubbing his sore eye as the soldier charged towards Ratchet with hard metal clubs of their own. Ratchet whacked everything soldier that came near him with the wrench, as Vox began to walk away to collect his Combustor which was left behind. Once the last soldier was down, he twirled his wrench towards Vox and watched as it spun towards him.

An injured Cragmite that was almost dead laid on the ground, noticing the wrench about to hit one of it's masters. In hope of saving it's master, it quickly got up and jumped in front of the wrench, taking the killing blow. Vox picked up the Combustor and fired straight at Ratchet, hitting him square in the chest and knocking back into the elevator unconscious.

"Wait, no!" yelled Vox as the elevator closed and the cubicle lowered to bottom. After waiting for an enormous amount of time, he was finally able to step into the elevator and listen to the music as he went down. He grinned viciously when he arrived at the bottom and saw a soldier treating the wounded Lombax, ready to transport him to the prison for their ultimate leader's collection. And hiding in one of the closets inside the station was Cronk and Zephyr, safe as sound.

* * *

"So just who is your ultimate leader?" asked Talwyn curiously, finally finding out how the four of them were all thrown in jail. "I mean, there's you, Tachyon, Otto and Drek. Would that just leave Nefarious?"

"No, Nefarious is not our leader but if you are so eager to see him…" said the smooth voice of Lawrence, walking into the room with the robotic Nefarious.

"HELLO SQUISHIES AND SQUISHIE LOVERS!" screamed the wacky voice of Dr. Nefarious, positioning himself right in front of Ratchet who shuddered from the sound of his voice.

"Where are we? Are we back in the Woldgon Galaxy?" asked Clank to Lawrence, who seemed the most trustworthy villain in the room.

"Yes, on one the most dangerous and unescapable planet in the universe, Dethrona…"

Chapter 5 Preview

_One blaster bolt fired out of the ship and left an impact burning mark on the wall behind Aphelion. Another blaster bolt fired out and hit the red shield dead center. The shield began to flicker and eventually dissipated. The third blaster bolt however was still making its way to Aphelion, and could blow it up. Clank ran as fast as he could and positioned himself in front of the blaster bolt._


	5. Jailbreak

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After tricking the mysterious Lombax and escaping, a chase ensues. Clank shrinks and fixes the comlink, but just before being captured by Emperor Otto Destruct. Talwyn gets dropped of at the Apogee Space Station to help Cronk and Zephyr fight off Cragmites, but is captured by Tachyon. Qwark boards the Lombax's fighter and grounds it on Mukow, where he rushes into the arena for help, but the Lombax corners him and reveals to be Drek. Ratchet turns back to the Apogee Space Station, where Gleeman Vox battles and captures him and are all thrown in prison on Dethrona._

_Chapter 5: __Jailbreak_

A young Cazarean boy roamed through deserted barren wasteland that was Dethrona. He pondered about the lifeforms that would bother to live on this worthless globe.

He remembered how he came to the desert land that only had one sound, the wind. His mother was the Mayor of Metropolis (succeeding a great Cazar that fought in Nefarious' reign), and during Tachyon's attack sent him to another galaxy for safety.

"But mother, why are you sending me to another galaxy?" asked the young 10-year-old voice. "Tachyon isn't that dangerous. Plus, my favourite hero is living here. He'll defeat him."

"I don't care," wailed the caring mother. "I don't want to risk losing you."

"But if you send me away, it would be just like losing me," retorted the stubborn boy.

He stopped thinking about his past when he saw a green circle-shaped gizmo with a metal-plated edge. Not thinking about the consequences of stealing, he threw it in his backpack.

The boy's mother had hired Big Al to modify a rocket to make it absolutely safe.

"Are you sure this rocket won't explode if it gets attacked?" asked the worried mother.

"Not to worry," responded the nerdy voice of Big Al. "This rocket has been equipped with an invisibility device that will prevent it from being seen by radars. No-one will know a thing about it."

"Mother," said the solemn voice of the Cazarean boy. "Where are you sending me?"

"You will be safe and sound on the planet Alegna in the Woldgon Galaxy," responded his mother.

His memories were disturbed once again when he came across a shadow just over a sand dune. From the distance, it looked like a giant sandy-coloured cat's food bowl, but on a closer glance, is was actually a maximum-security prison. Pulling himself up to a nearby giant brown rock shaped like a giraffe's crooked neck, he searched the outside for guards. After a minute of using his good eyesight, he saw that the prison was surrounded by a ditch with only one bridge going across, leading to the only door, locked in front five others with no guards daring to go outside. He pulled himself down from the rock and desperately trekked towards the dangerous maximum-security prison while continuing with his past.

His mother cried as the rocket turned invisible and blasted off. She was able to see her young son's face turn to her on a computer screen before it disappeared through the atmosphere. It travelled past a nearby moon when its engine stopped and it disappeared through space using a grav-o-metric warp drive. On the nearby moon, however, a Vullard adventurer, who looked like any other Vullard, had just put some Therm-Optic Shades, adjusted to seek invisible objects, and was waiting for an adventure to go on. He was just firing up the Vullard ship's engine, but spotted the rocket warping to the Woldgon Galaxy. The Vullard's ship was and oval spherical shape made out of marble covered in metal and had two wings face down-diagonally for balance and speed. He lifted the ship off the moon and used it's grav-o-metric warp drive towards the Woldgon Galaxy.

Once he arrived at the Woldgon Galaxy, he looked around from his cockpit to see whether the rocket was nearby. He looked to the right, space junk and a lava-filled moon. He looked in front of him, a cloudy green atmosphere of a nearby planet. He look behind the ship, nothing in sight. He looked to the left, and only saw a sandy planet in the distance. He was just about to give up looking, when in the corner of his robotic eye, spotted a rocket arriving from the warp drive. The Vullard stared as the rocket blasted away, until its engines malfunctioned and pointed the ship directly at the sandy planet.

"Mommy, help me!" yelled the tiny voice of the Cazarean boy over the roar of the engines.

The Vullard turned on his ship's boosters and piloted it towards the crash-landing rocket. However, before he could reach the planet, the rocket disappeared in the fiery line weaving around it as it entered the planet's atmosphere.

"Robot man in spaceship, please help me!" pleaded the voice of the boy, spotting the Vullard trying to save him.

Tiny green and purple lizards were having feasts on dead carcasses on their sand dunes, but were rudely interrupted as a rocket zoomed over them and buried it's head in sand, with a loud "thump". After staring at the lifeless, smoking ships for a few seconds, one turned back to be greedy and eat more food than the rest, and so the other lizards followed him. They were too busy eating their delicious meals that they took no notice when an egg shaped ship with wings pointing down followed the rocket, spun, and smoothly glided down beside it.

The slow Vullard exited his marble ship, ignored the creatures feasting and turned to the rocket. He saw a Cazarean boy pounding on one of the windows, who stopped and backed off when he saw the Vullard pull a knife-like object out of his junk backpack. He pushed the object into the window and banged on it with his fist. The glass began to crack towards the edges, and then crumbled away in the pressure.

"Thank you, mister," said the young boy, a little scared.

"It-is-a-pleasure-to-help-a-damsel-in-distress," told the Dalek-like voice of the Vullard.

"Hey!" yelled the now relaxed Cazar. "I'm not a girl!"

"Sorry," innocently replied the Vullard.

"So what's your name?" asked the boy climbing out of the ship.

"My-name-is-A81R03V52," responded the Vullard, to which the boy make a puzzled look. "Or-you-can-call-me-ARV-for-short."

"Pleased to meet you Arv," greeted the Cazarean, shaking his hands with the cold, robotic hand that tingled. "My name is Tehctar."

The gang remained in chains, waiting for some glimmer of hope to happen. Only a dull green glow flew over the foursome, crouching and trying to figure out a way to escape. Ratchet shared an idea for Clank to squeeze through the bars, but they were stopped short by the chains. Clank shared an idea for Qwark to dress up as Nurse Shannon and seduce one of the villains, but Nefarious would know that it was Qwark because he's seen it before. Qwark shared an idea for Ratchet to use his prehensile tail to steal his wrench back, but it might be days before Ratchet ever sees his wrench. Talwyn didn't give any ideas, but just sat there, staring at nothing, and after a long period of silence, spoke.

"Come on, guys," she said persuadingly. "We all have special abilities. We can find a way to get out. I mean, look at Clank, he has a Heli-Pack, Robo-Wings and Geo-Laser-"

"OF COURSE!" exclaimed Ratchet. "Clank can use his Geo-Laser to bust his chains and the walls."

Clank's left hand instantly transformed into a gadget that looked like a mix between an antenna and a drill. He pulled his right hand in front of him and aimed the Geo-Laser at the space between the handcuff and the chains, and with one thought busted them apart. He transformed his left hand back to normal as his right hand transformed into the Geo-Laser. He repeated his actions and then turned to the wall behind him. Beginning from the lower-left corner, Clank made a wavy doorway pattern with the Geo-Laser, and finished on the bottom right. The wall spontaneously blasted away, and the room behind it was light pink on the wall above the door, light blue all the down and with a pale yellow ceiling. The room contained one metal door that opened like a crooked jaw, and a Giant Clank pad, which Clank witnessed the mecha-cyborg of Drek stepping on and being reduced to size. The new Drek had the old Drek's head with one red eye, and a completely robotic body below. On his chest, a Gold Bolt was situated in between gears that were running Drek's body.

Drek spotted Clank looking at him and he growled. He was about to hop back on the Giant Clank pad when Clank unleashed his Robo-Wings and flew directly to him, before unexpectedly swerving away to the left. Drek looked to his right and saw Clank flying around the room with something shiny in his hands. He looked down at his chest and saw that his gold bolt was missing. Before he do anything his robotic eye turned black and he collapsed on the ground. Clank landed in the back of the room and pulled his Robo-Wings back.

Nefarious entered the prison room, bragging about how easily he captured them, before noticing that Clank was gone.

"WHAT?" screamed the idiotic voice of Nefarious. "WHERE DID THAT SQUISHIE LOVER GO?"

Before any of them answered, the walls behind crumbled and their chains broke.

"See you later, Nefarious," announced Qwark before running into the room with the rest, where they witnessed Clank standing on the Giant Clank pad and immediately transforming, with his head just touching the ceiling. Clank turned to his friends and placed his hands, to which Ratchet, Talwyn and Qwark stepped on it, and Clank rose his hand and placed them on the back of his neck.

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRENCE!" yelled Nefarious.

"May I be of assistance, sir?" asked the calm voice of Lawrence, entering the room.

"GET RID OF THESE BAAARS!" commanded Nefarious.

"I'm sorry, sir," answered Lawrence. "But these bars were built to be impenetrable, so no prisoners could get out."

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRE-" yelled Nefarious before he froze and played Lance & Janice.

"Oh, Janice," said the smooth voice of Lance. "You don't have to worry about Englebert anymore. He is dead now."

"Oh, Lance!" exclaimed Janice. "I love you more than the 98 husbands I have on Vertis!"

"Mmmmmmm," moaned Lance. "Wait a minute…"

SMACK! Lawrence did his favourite part of his job, smacking Nefarious on the head. And he didn't take Nefarious to get it fixed, because he actually enjoyed the radio broadcasts of Lance & Janice.

"-NCE!"

SMASH!

With one punch of Giant Clank's metal fists, the door broke away, along with some of the wall. Giant Clank walked through the gaping hole and took some debris with him. As he came out of the hole, he saw a whole room of Tyhrranoids with helmets and visors over their faces working on computers. Some computers showed reports of security levels, which all started to flash red, and some computers showed reports of enemies trying to break in. Using a radar, the only lifeforms (apart from lizards) nearby was the Cazarean boy, but the Tyhrranoids didn't bother to harm him because he was just roaming around the prison, observing it.

Clank slowly moved around the Tyhrranoids, too busy to notice him, and was about to open the door, when he stepped on the side of a metal disc and it flung out from under him, rebounding off the wall and into the side of a Tyhrranoids head. All the Tyhrranoids stopped to see what was happening, and they looked around until they spotted Clank, stared at him for 10 seconds, and then ran out the gaping hole, screaming, fearing they going to die. Talwyn laughed at the pathetic Tyhrranoids being chickens and running away.

"What are we going to do?" asked Nefarious, nearly giving up all hope. "What worse could happen?"

Just as he made that ironic statement, the about 60 Tyhrranoids rushed in through the hole and squeezed through the bars, stampeding Nefarious, but Lawrence stepped out of the way just watched as the Tyhrranoids ran for their life through the door.

Clank made over six punches with the next door, but it would not give away. Clank eventually became tired and stopped, sitting on by the nearby desks. Ratchet hopped off his back and sat at on the of the desks. He searched the computer for an escape route, but could only found Tyhrranese emails and safety reports. Talwyn rudely shoved Ratchet off the computer and made herself comfy in the chair. She placed a USB Drive in the port and began to hack the encrypted information regarding blueprints of the prison compound. Then, while the hacking was in process, she found an update showing footage of a Cazarean boy roaming and observing the compound looking all over the place, as if something was there. She informed Ratchet (who was still shaking himself off after being pushed to the ground) of the boy, and wanted to help him. Ratchet and Clank thought, and then said that if they were safe outside the compound, then they would help, but the were running for their lives, then they would leave him.

Suddenly, a thump came from the locked. Qwark, Ratchet and Clank backed away from the door as thumps sounded all over the door. Qwark almost wet his pants until the thumping stopped. He was relieved and moved back towards the door then a humongous thump sounded, he wet his pants and the door gave away. The scared Tyhrranoids from earlier had broken down the door and rushed out to the Giant Clank room.

Qwark just stood there, as stiff as a log, with a wet patch on his pants. Clank, Ratchet and Talwyn laughed and they hopped back on Clank's neck. Clank pulled Qwark up by his right arm and placed him on his neck too.

They moved their way into the next room, which was a hanger and was filled with a Technomite Dreadnought, Blarg Fighters, and the Aphelion, placed under arrest. Ratchet, Qwark and Talwyn hopped off Clank and searched the room for a switch of some sort. Qwark crawled under the Technomite Dreadnought and eventually got stuck. Ratchet tried to pull him out, but he couldn't under the weight of the Dreadnought.

Talwyn looked inside one of the Blarg Fighters and saw nothing but switches and buttons indescribably telling their functions in Blarg. She hazarded a guess and pressed a shiny green circle.

WOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

The Blarg Fighter rose in the air. Talwyn found a steering wheel and began piloting the ship. Giant Clank and Ratchet watched as Talwyn veered the ship into the aisle (with Qwark mumbling incoherently) and aimed the ship towards the Aphelion. She found a gun-looking control panel and pressed the square red button three times. One blaster bolt fired out of the ship and left an impact burning mark on the wall behind the Aphelion. Another blaster bolt fired out and hit the red shield dead center. The shield began to flicker and eventually dissipated. The third blaster bolt however was still making its way to the Aphelion, and could blow it up. Clank ran as fast as he could and positioned himself in front of the blaster bolt.

Clank fell to the ground, with the blaster bolt in his chest, crackling, as Clank slowly shut his eyes. Ratchet yelled for Clank's life, dashing towards him holding his chest. Qwark was so surprised that he popped out under the Dreadnought and ran unusually to be by Clank's side. Talwyn landed the Blarg Fighter and desperately ran towards Ratchet, being with him at Clank's final moments.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" cackled a familiar voice in the distance.

"Come on, Ratchet," Talwyn said solemnly. "We have to get rid of Nefarious."

Ratchet didn't answer. He remained by Clank's side, not moving an inch, feeling that his life was over. Talwyn, frustrated, left Ratchet to mope and not even help his friends and his best pal's lifeless body.

Talwyn looked around the room, desperately trying to find a way to prevent Nefarious from throwing them back in jail…or worse. Qwark heroically made an upright pose and ran back towards the Technomite Dreadnought. With his amazing jumping abilities, he barely needed any strength to bounce up and land dead center in the pilot's seat. He idiotically pulled the switch next to his body and the engines roared, with the bonnet sliding into position. An oddly shaped rhombus steering wheel sat in front of his eyes, staring face-to-face with the mesmerized face of Qwark. Tensing his fingers, he grabbed the steering wheel firmly and pulled out into the alley. Slowly and smoothly, he mumbled his prayers and aimed the Dreadnought towards the entrance of the hanger. Just as the tip of the ship touched the ground, Qwark heroically shouted "FOR CLANK!" before being lost in the dust.

After the Technomite Dreadnought blocked the door, the electricity panels surrounding it all malfunctioned and bolts of electricity flew everywhere. Ratchet finally stirred from his mourning and grabbed Talwyn's hand pulling her behind a Blarg Fighter as sparks flew everywhere. Awfully close together, Ratchet and Talwyn could do nothing but stare at each other, with Ratchet surprisingly blushing before she did. He leaned into kiss her, and their lips were an inch from touching as the electricity died down, but one huge CLAP echoed through the room and a bolt from the main electricity panel, above the door, descended towards the blaster bolt as if it were being pulled. The blaster bolt acted as a lightning rod and sent a jolt through the lifeless body of Clank, spreading like wildfire.

Clank's eyes sprang open and was about to say his scientific "test phrase" but was stopped when he saw an ash-covered Qwark jump out of the Dreadnought and saw Ratchet and Talwyn kissing behind a Blarg Fighter.

"Ratchet?" curiously asked the newly recovered Clank, pulling the blaster bolt from his chest, half-laughing.

Ratchet stopped kissing Talwyn and looked behind the Blarg ship with red patches on his cheeks. He yelled Clank's name before springing up and running towards his best pal. Qwark, caressing the bruised back of his head, walked up towards the pair hugging and told him that they should get in the Aphelion and get as far away as possible from the prison compound. Talwyn, still blushing, walked to the group and agreed. Clank, however, asked how he would be able to get in the ship, still wondering how they Dreadnought was in the position it is. Ratchet thought of a crazy solution and looked in the chest of items in the Aphelion. Before reaching the chest, he found his Wrench laying on the pilot's seat, and everyone else's items. He rummaged around for a while before grabbing the Zoni Vessel and commanding them to change Clank back and heal his chest wound. The Zoni agreed to help their "sire" and with a flash, Clank was back to his normal nerdy self. The foursome all piled in the Aphelion and started the engine. The bonnet positioned itself back down and Ratchet piloted the Aphelion before the gigantic metal gate leading out of the prison compound.

He had enough time to look back and smile at Talwyn before the gate opened, and with Nefarious's shouts in the distance, began to evacuate the planet, but were stopped by the presence of the young Cazarean boy.

Chapter 6 Preview

_Ratchet and the young boy Tehctar trudged through the barren wasteland, with him already missing his friends…and perhaps more with one of them. Tehctar had promised Ratchet that he knew someone that could keep him safe, although leaving Talwyn, Clank and Qwark to battle Nefarious's forces was heartrenching._

_Tehctar disrupted Ratchet's thoughts when he announced that he found an odd object lying on the sand. Ratchet stared at the green egg-shaped sphere surrounded by a metal ring, and then realised that the tracking beam had been put into work._


	6. The Wasteland

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After being thrown in jail on Dethrona, Clank uses his Geo-Laser to escape and go through a series of rooms until reaching a hangar, where they find the Aphelion under a forcefield. Talwyn defeats the forcefield, but risks blowing the ship up. Clank steps in and takes the blow, causing him to die. To stop Nefarious from capturing them, Qwark pilots a Dreadnought into the door, sealing the exit and eventually rebooting Clank. Meanwhile, a Cazarean boy named Tehctar makes his way to the prison compound._

_Chapter 6: The Wasteland_

"Tehctar…" repeated Ratchet, as if he'd heard the name before.

"I came from a rocket ship a few years ago," he told the group. "A Vullard saved me from starvation and helped me survive the Wasteland. I-"

The entrance to the left of the hangar opened up and Tachyon and his Cragmites marched out and turned to the group. Tehctar eye's opened wide in fear at the sight of Tachyon, and heard Ratchet command them to hop in the Aphelion in the distance. However, a Cragmite had already leaped up and impaled the Aphelion through it's engine causing it to die, before Ratchet hit him with his Omniwrench Millennium 12.

Ratchet landed in the Aphelion and threw the trunk out. He yelled to them, ordering them to take a weapon and fight off the Cragmites. Tachyon commanded his minions to charge, as Talwyn grabbed Ratchet's Combuster, Clank grabbed his Chronoscepter and Qwark pulled out a Groovitron. He deployed one and Tachyon started doing the moonwalk, Clank did the robot, the Cragmites break-danced, Talwyn did a bunch of weird dances with Tehctar while Ratchet did a pirate dance. Qwark ran over and took Talwyn's Combuster and blasted the Cragmites away. He then epically towered over Tachyon, who was in fear even though he was forced to dance. Qwark aimed the Combuster at his tiny head, then the Groovitron finished his round and Tachyon order more Cragmites to come out. The Combuster was knocked out of Qwark hand and he ran back towards the group. Talwyn rummaged through the trunk and discovered her jetpack that she used while on Merdegraw, searching for Clank. She equipped it on her back and boosted above the Cragmites. While they were distracted, Clank leaped and swung his Chronoscepter down onto one of the Cragmites heads. Once their attention was shifted once again, Talwyn landed and picked up her Combuster while Qwark looked for something else in the trunk. He was extremely excited when found a RYNO II, but was disappointed when he found out it had no ammunition. After searching through many broken or unhelpful gadgets, he came across a Liquid-Nitrogen Gun, used in Nefarious' first reign. Ratchet, Talwyn and Tehctar were all sweaty so he blasted it down and moved out of the way. They all stepped on the icy patch made and started battling again. However, for every Cragmite dying, two more came out to battle. Ratchet was the first one to notice this and asked Tehctar if they could get any backup. Tehctar replied by saying that the Vullard adventurer he met would probably have enough firepower in his ship to blast the Cragmites away.

Discreetly, Ratchet whispered into Talwyn's ear that was going to get help and back away behind the fighting trio towards the space behind a huge rock to the right.

Quickly, before Tachyon noticed anything they ran for it and dived behind the lowest part of the widespread rock. After a few seconds, brushing themselves off, they began to crawl towards the part of escalating rock where they'd be able to stand up with being seen by Tachyon. However, Tachyon, still commanding Cragmites, notices a Lombax ear poke out behind the rock and orders the Cragmite to get Ratchet. Clank turns away and looks through the chest again, where he finds the Zoni Vessel, with a total of 40 Zoni. He takes all of them out and they agree to set up a barrier while Clank uses his time-slowing powers for the Zoni to have more time set it up.

Ratchet poked his head out above the rock and noticed time was slowed down and the Zoni where flying into a semi circle, starting from the hangar all the way around to behind the entrance to the compound. He stared in awe as the Zoni expelled a two-dimensional forcefield around them and joined up to make one gigantic barrier. The Cragmites and Tachyon tried to stampede towards Ratchet, but where trapped by the forcefield, and the trio moved back to where Tachyon was as the Cragmites were now on their side of the newly constructed battlefield. The Cragmites aimed for their stuff but Talwyn, with her jetpack, pushed it to full and blast and took the chest in the blink of an eye.

Clank distracted them as Talwyn made her way back by pulling of a few Heli-Pack tricks combined with whacks of the Chronoscepter. He landed on one of the Cragmites heads as he performed a trick and jumped and aimed his Chronoscepter towards Tachyon's head. The Cragmites turned all their attention towards the descending figure of Clank. Qwark used his amazing leaping abilities once again with Talwyn's jetpacking to shoot above the Cragmites and the dumb creatures had their attention shifted once again, as Qwark landed and jumped around the mosh pit of Cragmites distracting them as Talwyn shot them from above. Clank steadied his aim like he was throwing a spear and crashed into Tachyon's head like a rocket, before being shoved against the compound wall like a pancake by Tachyon's cane. He began a process in which tiny bits of metal rose from the sandy ground and formed next to Tachyon to build his walking throne, first seen when he attacked Metropolis.

During this time, Clank leaped over to the entrance and configured the locking device next to it to never open again, so no more Cragmites could hinder them. Tachyon's throne leaped high above the forcefield and landed outside, abandoning his minions. Clank unleashed his Robo-Wings and flew up above too, only to see Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids spawn out of a portal on the roof. Leaving Tachyon to remain outside, he landed on the roof and began fighting off the Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids, whose main focus where Talwyn and Qwark below. Talwyn noticed Clank and jetpacked up and told Clank to fight Tachyon as she would fight the Tyhrranoids and Qwark could handle the Cragmites alone.

With his Robo-Wings still out he flew over the forcefield as Tachyon attempted to jump back over in his throne, resulting in Clank whacking Tachyon down to the sandy ground with the Chronoscepter. Clank glided safely to the ground and stared at Tachyon, still attempting to his throne back up. After a moment of struggling, they stared at each other and seemed to charge at each other simultaneously. It looked like a suicide as Clank directly ran towards the throne, but jumped to the side just in time and whacked Tachyon off his throne. He fell to the ground hard as Clank landed smoothly with his Heli-Pack, to which he thought the Thruster-Pack would be more useful in the battle.

Ratchet and Tehctar were exhausted by the time they could no longer hear fighting in the distance. Tehctar claimed to have a working directional device, but it kept changing direction, and they concluded they were lost.

Ratchet had sweat pouring down his face, and if you touched it, you'd think you were touching a soggy banana. Tehctar looked worn out and tired, but because of his experience in the Wasteland, he coped better than Ratchet.

The only thing in the Lombax and Cazarean's sight was a rock to their right shaped like a semi-circle with a pillar shooting out north-east of it. Weakly walking through the isolated desert, their footsteps came from around the rock they hide behind and then went straight forward, then turning north-west and going through a series of directions making the shaped of a lowercase "R".

Through the sandy air blowing around, Tehctar noticed that the sun was half way down, and told Ratchet that at nighttime, the Wasteland is a death trap. Using the little strength they had left in their bodies, they ran towards the nearby rock and circled it, looking for a cave. At the same speed, they came around the other side of the rock at the same time and crashed into each other. Once they recovered from the excruciating pain, they noticed a large cave in the back of the rock. They crawled their way inside and, with all their lasting strength, managed to push a large pumice rock, with had landed from a recently erupted volcano nearby, in front of the cave, sealing damage from getting in while providing oxygen.

Tehctar crouched down as Ratchet fell to the floor with his back against the wall. He took the backpack off his back and searched through the main pocket of it. Safely inside it was a unlit lantern, next to two sticks. When he pulled the sticks out, Ratchet jokingly asked if he was a scout boy, to which Tehctar replied that his father taught it to him incase he was trapped in the dark.

Ratchet's gloomy face literally lit up for a second when a few sparks flew from the rubbing of Tehctar's sticks. Eventually, a huge light burst to the ceiling of the cave before quickly dying down to a small candle-like flame on one of the sticks. Tehctar opened the lantern's door and slid the stick on the candle, before lighting it and sliding it back out. After he closed the door, he blew out the fire on the stick and joined Ratchet at the wall.

Tehctar rummaged through his backpack again and pulled out two bottles of water, cooled by an ice pack which they shared, and a few toys for them to play with to regenerate their strength as their told each other their history.

Ratchet told Tehctar his story and he carefully listened and got a sudden burst of energy when he found out that he was his hero. Tehctar celebrated for a while before losing his strength and regained it as Ratchet finished his story.

Tehctar began with his mother sending him to a different galaxy, and his rocket malfunctioning as a Vullard adventurer followed him before telling the story of what happened after he was saved.

_Arv showed me around his ship.__ Entering through the entrance at the side, a gazed at the three-seated cockpit to the right, with the steering wheel at the decorated, large seat at the front, while the two other smaller seats, one on each side, could spin in a semi-circle, before being stopped from spinning anymore, and conveniently had a semi-circle shaped desk in front of them, which was filled with reports, radars and safety and emergency books._

_I stopped gazing at the amazing technology when a heard a whooshing noise. I turned to my left and saw a wall with a single hook (with a Vullard backpack placed on it) to the left of a white door with a jagged pattern in the middle. I quickly__ realised__ that it was a form of security, like a lock, as Arv placed a rectangle-shaped object on a green pad which lowered and a yellow laser swept over it, studying it for 6 seconds before turning off, and the rectangle was spat out, being softly held by the machine as Arv pulled it._

_He then typed in a number code on a keypad next to the green pad and the door__ eventually opened like jaws._

_Arv, ignoring everything around__ him, entered the next room and I followed. Inside, was a small corridor that looked identical to the room before me, minus the cockpit. There was no hook, however, but instead, a desk with tools to the left and boxes with wires, wood and metals around it. To the right was another door and a gun rack on the wall opposite the desk._

_I__ admired the guns, looking at the tiny blasters to the huge bazookas and was distracted when Arv entered the final room behind us. The last room was a rectangular shape, except for small cubicles blocked the bottom left and right corners, with stairs going down to a smaller rectangle from the front, left and right side. On the left side, there were knives, chopping boards and fruits and ingredients in open cupboard. I guessed that this was the kitchen, and turned my attention to the right side. Four pods were lined up in a 2x2 grid on the wall shaped like a bed with a dome over it. I carefully walked down the steps and went up the ones to the right. On closer inspection, the domes were able to be opened and revealed yellow blankets on a yellow mattress, with a white pillow. When the beds domes were closed, it shone with a yellow glow._

_I__ slowly turned about and, while Arv was in the kitchen cooking me a meal, I walked down the steps and looked at the back of the room. Couches were arranged in a U shape and a table was joining them in the center. A huge__ flatscreen__ television was attached to the wall, adjacent to an interactive whiteboard connected to a desk with a computer on it. On the coffee table was a remote for the__ flatscreen__, a mug, a remote for the interactive whiteboard and a photo of a female Vullard._

_Arv pulled a tray of cylindrical green cakes out of a cooker and placed them on the table where he sat with me. Picking up the straightest of the dozen cakes, I inspected it curiously. I noticed that they had a brownish top and a type of yellow icing covering the bottom. Even though the green parts looked sickly, I took a bite and told myself to never again judge a book by its cover._

_After finishing the gracious meal, __I asked who the Vullard in the picture was. Arv sighed and told me that she was his girlfriend before he started adventuring, when she thought he was crazy, because of Vullards being poor pilots and battery bots running amok, and she went off with another Vullard. Arv then decided to show me the engine room, a hidden room under the table we were conversing at. I helped Arv push the sofas and table away, and, after doing so, opened a trapdoor and jumped down. _

_The fall was only a little pressured, but we both landed safely. I brushed myself off and recovered quickly before noticing battery bots running around, with one even hitting another with a wrench. Arv panicked and told me that stopping these__ battery bots took hours, and I volunteered to help. I first targeted the one with the wrench but he kept outrunning him and hiding in spots I couldn't reach. Even after blocking all those locations, I still couldn't catch one._

_I suggested that I__ should find something in the wasteland, and Arv told me that from previous visits that a gadgets facility was nearby, south of the spaceship. I told him that I would be able to handle the desert and quickly walked off._

"And when I eventually reached the "gadgets facility" I inspected it and found out that the facility had been destroyed and replaced with a cloning factory, in which you were held prisoners," finished Tehctar before laying his head back on the wall and shutting his eyes.

Covered in mud and with dangerous beasts watching the battle behind the forcefield, Clank continued to parry with the villainous Tachyon after many hours and it was already nighttime. Tachyon was sweating and had a hand on the ground for support. Clank could barely keep the Chronoscepter in his hands, and eventually thought that Tachyon didn't want to keep up the battle anymore, so he turned away and began to walk off. Tachyon raised his head up to the unaware Clank walking away, and immediately used all his last strength to run up and whack him with his cane. Clank noticed the charging figure racing towards him and brought out his Chronoscepter as Tachyon leaped in the air and was striking his cane down. Clank held the Chronoscepter out and spun, hitting Tachyon into the forcefield high above Clank, and was rebounded off and plunged towards the ground, softly hitting the sand unconscious.

Talwyn was left on the roof, with her jetpack on fire beside her, after getting blasted on the way back up when she went through the trunk after losing her Combuster. She was now equipped with the Dual Lacerators and was still blasting Tyhrranoids spawning their way out of a shaft. Talwyn had no way of stopping their continual respawning, as the shaft was guarded by a gang of Elite Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids. Talwyn, her arms tired, dropped her Lacerators and threw her flaming jetpack behind the Tyhrranoids, distracting them, even the Elite ones. Picking up her Lacerators, she veered to the left and blasted the space in between two the of the Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids, perfectly making it's way through and destroying the shaft, before blasting the last of the Tyhrranoids. She searched the rooftops for Nefarious, but realised that he must have left during the battle.

Qwark was freezing Cragmite after Cragmite with the Liquid-Nitrogen Gun, however, due to the intensity of heat in the desert, the Liquid-Nitrogen still inside the gun was deforming and eventually would not come out of the gun at all. In a desperate attempt, Qwark threw the gun into the cloud of Cragmites and it exploded distracting them as Qwark tried to make his way to the trunk. However, as he was sidling across the wall, one Cragmite put his pincer out in the wrong position and they all discovered Qwark, helpless, against the wall. They crouched down into a lunging position and the one that Qwark stepped on was knocked out in midair by Talwyn, hanging from Clank flying with his Robo-Wings. Talwyn stumbled as she let go of Clank's flying figure before he himself landed in front of her and prepared to finish off the Cragmites with ease.

Soon, after a few minutes of the usual battling, they surrounded the last Cragmite standing who wept in fear. Thinking the exact same solution, they picked him up and threw him over the forcefield, for it to survive by itself.

The three laid their backs against the prison compound wall, worrying whether Ratchet and Tehctar were alright in the desert, being surrounded by unusual and dangerous beasts. However, Clank brought their hopes back up when he mentioned that Tehctar had very good experience in the desert. Relaxed, the three decided to check the Aphelion to see what they could do to fix it tomorrow, and Talwyn slept in there as Qwark and Clank decided to stay out and rest through the night.

Morning came as harmless flying creatures began to search the grounds for meat from any beasts that had been killed the previous night as the sandstorm had finished its reign and the creatures returned to their nests. A small lizard-like creature with wings landed near a huge dead stomach of a beast that hadn't been completely ripped apart from the other nocturnal animals. It crawled to the meat, smelling it to see if it was healthy, and, when he started taking bites out for himself and his family, other creatures began to take their share, and didn't even notice the duo walking past them.

Ratchet and the young boy Tehctar trudged through the barren wasteland, with him already missing his friends…and perhaps more with one of them. Tehctar had promised Ratchet that he knew someone that could keep him safe, although leaving Talwyn, Clank and Qwark to battle Nefarious's forces was heartrenching.

Tehctar disrupted Ratchet's thoughts when he announced that he found an odd object lying on the sand. Ratchet stared at the green egg-shaped sphere surrounded by a metal ring, and then realised that the tracking beam had been put into work.

Tehctar was confused at first, but quickly understand when Ratchet told him that he was using the tracking device to see where Angela goes if she is nearby. Ratchet stared at the object, confused as to why it said that Angela was exactly where they were, and Tehctar asked to take a look. Ratchet turned around to see if Angela was in sight as he gave Tehctar the tracking device. Apart from the scavenging creatures, rocks and a distant volcano, there was nothing in sight. He was interrupted by Tehctar who told him that it seemed to be changing position. Ratchet, with his hopes up, checked the device and saw that it was malfunctioning and the location was zipping all over the place. Frustrated, he put the tracking device back on his belt and told Tehctar that a Gadgebot would probably be a better tracking device. Heading back north, they made their way through an opening between two rocks as a purple lizard-like creature rapidly crawled past. Familiar with them, Tehctar told Ratchet that they must be close. They ran up an inclined plain and gazed upon the sandy field, filled with purple and green dots, along with a marble spaceship standing out among them. Ratchet struggled to keep up as Tehctar laughed in joy as they avoided squishing the lizards and made their way to the spaceship. Piecing himself together at the entrance, Tehctar waited for Ratchet before entering, still laughing, and he gave a shout to Arv. He realised that he forgot to get something to help collect the Battery Bots, but Ratchet reassured him when he told Tehctar that he was able to catch them with Hoverboots and a Wrench. Tehctar ran into the final room and screamed, which alerted Ratchet while he was studying the cockpit. Catching up to him, Ratchet saw that the beds were broken apart, the kitchen was in a mess and a couch was flipped over hiding the deactivated figure of Arv, sitting in the position he was when Tehctar left the ship.

Talwyn, Clank and Qwark all woke up at the same time due to a large bang nearby. The Zoni that had created the forcefield were incapacitated and the entrance had been blast open. Nefarious, Vox, Tachyon and Drek all exited the blasted and smoking entrance with Elite troopers behind them. They ordered the troopers to aim their weapons at them and ordered the trio to stand up. Talwyn and Qwark felt helpless as the trunk containing their weapons had already been taken by the villains. Clank, however, glared a Talwyn who looked at him in puzzlement, and Clank made notion to behind her and she realised that a weapon had been placed in her left pocket. Clank then turned his head to Qwark, who gave the same reaction, but noticed that a weapon was stuffed in his leotard when Clank pointed it out. Clank shoved his hand into his radiator core and pulled out a Devastator, while at the same time, Qwark pulled out a Heavy Lancer, Talwyn pulled out an Arbiter, smiled at each other and fired away.

Chapter 7 Preview

_Trapped in the explosion, Vox, __Drek, Otto and Tachyon got some enjoyment from the Lance & Janice program that was playing on Nefarious's frequencies, and managed to smack him on the head once it finished, even though they were knee-deep in debris._

_It was nearly nightfall again, and they were surprised that the three actually left them in the rubble. Many broken droids and dead troopers were smothered in debris, and the four couldn't bare to look at any that weren't completely covered. Luckily, a few troopers had survived, but they were waiting for help too._

_Vox, shocked by all this failure, laid his head back and remembered how he came to join forces with these villains…_


	7. Fragments

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_In the midst of a battle between the joined forces of Vox, Otto Destruct, Tachyon, Nefarious and Drek, Ratchet and the Cazarean boy Tehctar search for help. Ratchet learns about Tehctar's history and they eventually find Arv's ship, however Arv has been deactivated. Clank, Talwyn and Qwark manage to gain the upper hand, but wake up to be held hostage by the villains. Clank, however, comes out with a devious plan…_

_Chapter 7: Fragments_

The blazing guns of Clank's Devastator, Talwyn's Arbiter and Qwark's Heavy Lancer proved to be effective against the Elite troopers of many species. Only a few managed to attack with minor injuries to the trio.  
Noticing that they were losing, the villains ran back into the cloning facility and tried to come up with a plan as they ran through corridors, locking the doors behind them and making their way towards the meeting room. Safely, they enter the meeting room with 9 locked doors behind them.

The meeting room was rectangular and contained a single long desk with computers at each of the five seats. A huge black emblem was on the back wall, shaped like a circle with two white silhouettes of swords crossing in diagonal directions, with the hilts at the bottom. Behind the two swords were the letters VA, standing for Villainous Alliance. They sat at their designated desks and each got their troopers to patrol each of the nine corridors, with each villain getting two corridors except for Nefarious. Once finished, they anxiously expected something, as if they were waiting for the trio to come.

Clank, Qwark and Talwyn finished the last of the troopers and noticed that the VA was gone. They realised that this was their chance to end it. They entered the facility and came to their first roadblock. Clank tried to crack the code on the steel door, but the security was too high for him.

Without thinking, Qwark fired a bullet from his Heavy Lancer, which rebounded off, hit the side of entrance, flying into the left room, over the group of Tyhrranoids still running around, rebounding into the room to the right of that hitting a tank of gas, punching a hole it. Qwark, Talwyn and Clank immediately turned and ran as fast as they could while gas was streaming out of the punctured tank.

Otto Destruct sniffed the air and asked the others if they smelled gas. Nefarious couldn't as he was no longer organic, but Tachyon, Drek (with his nose still in place), Otto and Vox could all smell gas. They all got out of their chairs and headed for the door, placing a code to open it. Once the door was opened, however, fire burst out of the ventilation system and they all stood in fear as a bang loud enough to punch the universe filled the air as Clank, Qwark and Talwyn were all pushed to the ground by the shockwave, but they had minor injuries.

Trapped in the explosion, Vox, Drek, Otto and Tachyon got some enjoyment from the Lance & Janice program that was playing on Nefarious's frequencies, and managed to smack him on the head once it finished, even though they were knee-deep in debris.

It was nearly nightfall again, and they were surprised that the three actually left them in the rubble. Many broken droids and dead troopers were smothered in debris, and the four couldn't bare to look at any that weren't completely covered. Luckily, a few troopers had survived, but they were waiting for help too.

Vox, shocked by all this failure, laid his head back and remembered how he came to join forces with these villains…

* * *

"It's over, Vox," said the voice of the approaching Lombax in his DreadZone armor as I was coughing and spluttering and Slugha was by my side, watching the Lombax.

"No!" I rasped. "But it will be soon!" as I picked up a remote by my side and pressed the biggest button.

"Destruct sequence initiated," announced a female computer voice. "60 seconds until battle dome detonation."

"The escape shuttles all left LONG ago," I told Ratchet as I laughed. "Now we'll both die together. On live Holo-Vision!"

Slugha looked at me like I was crazy as I chuckled again. "It will be the best ratings-cough-I've ever had!"

Ratchet looked sad and heroically stated, "Even if I don't make it out alive, at least a lot of other heroes escaped tonight."

I coughed and spluttered before saying, "Enjoy your pathetic idealism," as I coughed again. "For the last few seconds of your life!"

Suddenly a whirring came as an escape shuttle landed just before Ratchet and Clank opened the door for him. Ratchet told him to hold on and he picked up Slugha and ran in with Merc and Green.

"!" I yelled as the shuttle blasted off and the last 5 seconds came. Desperately, I thought that if I ever made it out alive that I would chop off my robotic hand so people would think I died. I pulled a knife out of my jacket and pushed it down on my robotic wrist. There was no pain as I threw the hand up, and then realised that there was an abort button on the remote that one of the test robots must have added. I pressed the tiny button, obviously placed so small that I wouldn't notice and destroy him, and the female computer voice spoke once again.

"Destruct sequence on hold," announced the voice as I relaxed. I ordered two Executioners to help me and take me back to my office. Once I was placed on my desk chair, I pressed a blue button and programmed a transport shuttle waiting on another planet to fly to the station and take me off.

The wait was impatient and boring but eventually the transport arrived and I stepped on it with as many droids I could gather. I programmed it once more to take us to any planet in any galaxy and continued the DreadZone destruction sequence as we warped to another galaxy while I watched a collar from another shuttle get thrown out a window and simultaneously blew up with the station. I almost cried as I saw billions of bolts go to waste and an asteroid floating towards it nearby. All I could see after that was flashing lights as we were already going to another galaxy.

"Entering the Woldgon Galaxy," said the female computer voice on the shuttle. I had never ever heard of this galaxy, so it must have been far away. Soon the flashing lights on the windows swept into a black sky with white dots blinking. The shuttle made it's way to the nearest planet, a sandy looking desert planet with no clouds in the sky.

I exited the shuttle with my 20 or so troopers and looked around. It was nighttime and usually there'd be a cold chill in air, but instead I felt like I was burning to a crisp. In the darkness, I could only see rocks and began to see crazy-looking monsters of all shapes and sizes and advancing on him. I looked forward and saw a building in the distance. I ordered my troops to follow me and get rid of any creatures that tried to stop us.

I ran through the starry sky making my way to the shadow in the distance. I occasionally stopped when a beast blocked my path but my troopers dealed with them. I finally reached the entrance, panting and spluttering, only to find that the last of my troopers were torn apart, and the creatures were slowly walking up to me. Just as a monster pounced at me, the entrance opened and I was pulled in, before the creature landed headfirst into the strong door. I turned around and met the eyes of a creature I had never seen before.

The unidentified creature spoke with an extremely gruff background to it, and told me that he would not harm me. I was still petrified, however, as the monster changed its form into a bunny. He explained that he could speak telepathically and wanted to recruit me. Less terrified, I managed to utter a question to him, wondering what benefits I'll get. He responded by saying that one of the greatest villains in the universe had survived a battle, although he was forced into a robot and perfected a cloning device, allowing him to create troopers from a single unit. This is where I got excited, thinking that I'd be able to create an entire army of DreadZone troopers, before I realised that all of the remaining droids had been torn apart by scavenger creatures.

The bunny previewed to me that I would get my own quarters, a laboratory, an arsenal of weapons, a seat in the main meeting room and my own chance to be part of the Villainous Alliance, an organisation aiming for universal domination. The bunny transformed into a packet of a certain food named "chips" with a pink glow as he shape-shifted and he offered to show me around me around the facility, and then realised that he hadn't introduced himself properly.

He uttered a long phrase in an alien language that I had never heard before, surprising me like the time Ace Hardlight had defeated the previous champion of DreadZone, Hot Gas Killer. He realised that I didn't understand what he was saying, so he just told me to call him "Master", giving him a menacing title, before he trudged down a corridor.

Confused and seemingly taken aback, I reluctantly had no choice but to follow him.

* * *

A white light appeared in front of my eyes as I opened them and the snowiness cleared to the image of a Novalian bodybuilder pulling me out of the metal junk that had been torn apart from the climatic blast. He unexpectedly let go of my arms and crumpled on the junkyard as a purple glow formed around him and his shape turned into a crowbar.

After realising who my savior was, another blast was thrown up from beneath, pushing me into the air as fiery smoke surrounded me and in a blitz, I saw a purple glow reveal a blue hedgehog, which spun like a wheel and leaped into the air grabbing my chest and back with both of it's hand and landing away from the shockwave, as metal showered from the sky and buried the other villains.

I opened my mouth, from which the blue figure told me he took this appearance from a Vid-Comic about a speedy hedgehog. I sat down on a large piece of silver blown away by the wind and contemplated my plan. I had to somehow make my way through the rubble to find the probably already dead members of Villainous Alliance, buried deep in the metal and I had no idea where to start. But because I needed universal domination so badly, I started digging.

Away from all the commotion of Vox desperately scrambling to find his friends, Otto Destruct laid at the bottom of the mountain high junkyard, breathing through a jagged, bendy line of oxygen, seeping through the metal.

He suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, gasping, before shutting his eyelids and falling back into the rubble, attracting Vox's attention. Otto's eyelids fluttered as the world around him faded into white…

* * *

The fading rocket-shaped ship containing my worst enemies blasted away from Florana, leaving me, in the body of a monkey, and the chimp of the Q-Force, Skrunch, standing next to me in my body.

It was extremely hard to figure out who was who, meaning I didn't know whether Skrunch was me or I was Skrunch or…GAH! The 30% of my brain used couldn't take it anymore. Suddenly, Skrunch's sickly violet hand grasped onto my furry brown hand and pulled me only through the jungle.

In the distance, I could hear the drums of the tribesmen banging amongst the calls of Floranian Blood Flies in their nests. Skrunch and I passed through to a fairy ring of trees, where we sat for while. Soon I realised, that due to our minds being switched, were could telepathically speak to each other in the common language of most species.

Skrunch told me that he was taking me to his tribe, where they would take care of me and live there forever. Surprised, I told him that I didn't want to live in a tribe of space monkeys and eat bananas for the rest of my life, but Skrunch retorted by saying that every monkey has to return to their tribe as soon as possible, whether they switched brains or not.

As I pondered over the fact that I had to be a furry little creature till the day I died almost made me cry, but I was stopped by the swarms of Floranian Blood Flies forming out of the trees and surrounding us. We couldn't fight them because we were still adjusting to our new, hateful bodies, and we could barely walk in them. How was I supposed to fight with a bunch of weak red insects. A Blood Fly with a crown-like shape formed on it's head lunged at us and was whacked away into the swarm by a stick.

The Blood Flies followed their leader and stayed away from us, leaving me the fairy ring, Skrunch and the mysterious savior of ours. We turned to face the warrior, who turned out to be another monkey, and after explaining from Skrunch, the chief of the tribe.

He looked just like Skrunch, except he had small bamboo columns sticking out of his head band, made from the red hairs of a Mernasian orangutan, and spotted with Floranian nut crusts. He wore a necklace made from blue and purple pebbles washed up on the shores of nearby beaches, with a semi-circle shaped symbol hanging from it, with rectangles shooting out on the top and sides, like a rising sun with only three light beams.

My observing was interrupted by Skrunch's thoughts rushing into my head again, telling me to follow the chief and to not make a sound until we arrived at their village, where we would explain our problem.

We once again twisted our way through the dark-leaved trees, with more drums in the distance, combined with the calls of Blood Flies and other dangerous creatures, except this time we had a monkey wielding a skinny yellow bamboo stick, used for multiple purposes such as to help with walking over tough ground, guiding us to their "safe haven."

Many prickles stuck into our feet as we walked through dangerous forest, running into Blood Flies occasionally and defeating them with ease with the bamboo stick. We curved through a never-ending slew of trees and branches, before finally coming out into the open revealing the peaceful and bright village, containing 7 houses, a shop, a mill and an altar for praying to the monkey gods. Many monkeys were collecting wood to expand onto their village, and once they all noticed the chief emerging from the shadowy forest, they ran on all fours to greet him and his guests.

They all crowded around the chief who spoke in a strange monkey language to them, announcing that he had found the might Skrunch, who was apparently a hero and hope to the monkey religion and that he had found himself a sidekick. I was able understand this through Skrunch who translated it telepathically.

This statement filled me with rage. Skrunch didn't gain the trust of a tiny race and didn't put them in battle armor to gain domination over Ratchet and Clank. Skrunch didn't become an emperor or create an army. Why was he the heroic and successful figure and I wasn't?

Skrunch announced in secret to the chief about the mind switch which confused the chief, as he tried to tackle this conundrum, but eventually got used to fact that Skrunch was me and I was Skrunch. He then seemed skeptical at whether I should be trusted, due to the fact that it was my fault we ended up this way. The houses of the village were the simple hut layout. A cylindrical bamboo wall, with a cone-shaped ceiling, and a pavilion sticking out from it all around.

Skrunch and I were taken to the middle of the village, containing a well with a bucket tied to it with rope and a ring of stones in front of it, with wood already lit inside it. They sat us down around it with glee and followed the usual survival cooking procedures they had learned from a pilot that had crashed nearby.

By the time the sun had fallen, they finished their special dinner for the entire village and handed us plates carved from shells on the nearby beaches. They gave us cup-like shells as well and poured soup made from edible insects and nearby native fruits. I was reluctant to try some at first, but Skrunch eventually convinced and the soup actually didn't taste bad. For a small village, they sure knew how to cook.

Next they came out with the dinner, containing a large piece of meat from a huge creature that attacked a few days ago that they killed and took its meat from, then a infestation of small spheres that looked like beads, but were crunchy on the inside and tasted really good. But unfortunately, I didn't like the soft fish guts shaped like pillows which tasted like an overnight party inside my mouth.

Skrunch, however, enjoyed the fish guts and I gracefully spoiled him with my share of them. After a drink from the well, I felt quite warm and fuzzy and the chief took us to Skrunch's home before he left, which was still vacant after a few years.

The chief and the other monkeys kept the house sparkly, waiting for the heroic monkey to return to the village with many tales to tell. Skrunch hopped in his bamboo bed, and the chief talked to one monkey who was glad to give up his bed to me so I could rest well. I felt a little gracious at the kind offering, but shook it off, realising that a villain shouldn't be grateful.

It was a little uncomfortable at first, sleeping on a bed made entirely out of bamboo, but I got used to the feeling and eventually had a restful sleep, along with Skrunch. I dreamt of many memories, including the time I was betrayed by my girlfriend, Myxia. I first met Myxia in a combat academy on Tyruger in the Solana Galaxy, where I saved her life after a shielding device malfunctioned and an oncoming attack with a Cyber-Scythe would have killed her, but I managed to grab a second and block the attack. Cyber-Scythes were computer generated scythes with amazing strength and defence, also allowing the wielder to move in incredible ways and speeds. If the scythe was managed to be penetrated, then the cut wires would cause a failure in it's strength.

After the accident was over, she decided to repay me with an expensive Cyber-Scythe 3.7, the latest edition that contained a cloaking device inside it for sneaky attacks. We then became friends and tackled many problems together until when we finally graduated on my birthday and she gave me a kiss that lead to a romantic relationship between us. We were a little confused on what we were going to do after our graduation, but we then decided that we would form a duo to steal the most valuable objects in the galaxy.

Myxia and I were unstoppable, stealing from museums, caves and shrines, until the day we visited the planet Barotica. Before we left to steal the Yusi Ring, Myxia had decided that she didn't need me and only got into a relationship with me because of the usefulness she could get until she was strong enough. So, the day we left our ship to enter the factory, she swapped my Cyber-Scythe with a plain old broken one that would not be useful at all.

Confident, we entered from the air duct and jumped down into the room with the pedestal. However, as soon as we landed, we tripped the alarm and what looked like spheres with a huge red eye and green antenna on top spawning from every possible opening. The fired bolts out of their eye and Myxia jumped all over the place, slashing at the intruding robots. When I tried to move, I only moved like a normal old person and was soon shot down by the robots.

I was only stunned and managed to crawl back into the air duct and they ignored me, due to the strength of Myxia who was still fighting. I crawled into our ship and upon investigation, realised that Myxia had sabotaged my Cyber-Scythe and took it, replacing it with a faulty one that had completely broken.

Heartbroken, I took off without her, back to the academy to sort out my relationship, and found out a few days later that she had died when she touched the Yusi Ring, sending an electrical shock through her body more powerful than 1000 lightning bolts combined.

I woke up with a tear rolling down my eye and realised I was strapped to a chair beside one with Skrunch in it and I was stuck inside a spaceship ready for launch.

Skrunch was still asleep as we was too strapped on a chair by double seatbelts. I looked ahead and saw the chief separated by a pink barrier that provided as the door to the ship. I woke up Skrunch and told him to translate whatever the chief said.

"I'm sorry. The villagers put it up to a vote and decided that we couldn't trust your sidekick and we had to blast you off to space unknown. A year ago, a spaceship crashed and had no lifeforms inside. It was in good condition so we decided to make minor repairs and use to trap anyone we didn't trust inside and then make leave. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to break it to Skrunch so we strapped him too, so he will provide use in space because of his knowledge. Goodbye."

The chief began a countdown from 20 and in those few seconds I desperately tried to find away to get out of the seatbelts. But then I remembered, that just incase, I placed a Cyber-Scythe in the back of my shirt if I ever needed it. I stretched my hand towards my body and just managed to grab the shirt and rip it, pulling the Cyber-Scythe out and chopping my seatbelt. I ran to the pink barrier and slowly pushed my way through. The chief, in a panic, grabbed the Cyber-Scythe and whacked against the side, causing bolts to fire out and touch me and Skrunch.

I opened my eyes and saw the body of Skrunch leave the pink barrier as I was back in my original body. The electrical shock must have worked just like my machine and switched our brains. I was glad at first to no longer feel the itchy fur on my skin, but then realised that I was stuck in the seat, because the switch caused Skrunch to take my Cyber-Scythe, and by the time we realised what was going on, the spaceship had already taken flight.

Skrunch gazed up with a dull look on his face as my image faded upward, with a roar so loud that the tribesman all squabbled in fear and the villagers gathered even more wood from the trees that were knocked down by the sound of the spaceship taking off.

Floranian Blood Flies hid in their nests until the spaceship's engines were far away, disturbing their peace no more.

Immediately, once the ship passed through the atmosphere of the worldwide jungle of Florana, the ship passed moons of all colours and minerals and even spotted an aurora in space, purple and swirly. I recognised many planets passing by, including Kerwan, Daxx and Mylon. The beautiful view was suddenly disrupted by all the green and red lights violently flashing on the dashboard as we passed the green toxic clump of rock known as Orxon.

I wiggled in my seat, trying to break free of the choking seatbelts. I grabbed the seat, trying to push upward and then fell, with one of my hands touching a button on the side of the seat. The belts flung back to their compartments, and a lifted out of the chair with ease, and crawled my way to the dashboard. I couldn't understand any of the buttons and they just kept flashing and flashing, and I almost had a seizure. I looked away and noticed that to the side of the ship was a pink, yellow and white wavy line shooting across space, and started to suck the ship into it. The buttons were probably trying to warn me of the nearby rip and I grabbed what looked like a steering wheel, and veered it to the left, trying to break the hold of the line trying to eat us.

Although the ship faced away, with all engines blasting, we where slowly pulled back and eventually lost all control and fell into the strange hole in space. The gravity control on the ship went AWOL and I floated around the ship as it spun wildly inside the purple and black coloured hole. Eventually, after many bruises, I was pushed into a chair and I quickly pushed the seatbelts back into place, keeping me safe as we continued the trek through the what seemed to be a wormhole.

I was joyful when the ride started to smooth as stars began to twinkle in the distance, and the loud roar of the wormhole quieted. I undid my seatbelt once again and ran to the dashboard, trying to figure out what happened. After a few simple calculations, I managed to figure out that we were in the "Woldgonn" Galaxy. We continued to pass many planets, even the one that still gives me nightmares, Barotica, home of the Yusi Ring.

I felt tired and nauseated, and decided that I needed a rest. In case any more accidents happened, I strapped myself in the chair and tried to fall asleep in this uncomfortable position. My sleepy eyes opened and closed, until they finally stopped opening.

"_Otto!" called a familiar girl's voice.__ I turned around and met the eyes of Myxia. "Come with me," she laughed as she ran off._

_I reluctantly followed her inside a dark cave. I managed to catch up with her and stop in front._

"_Did you forget?" she asked. "It's our graduation today." Her breasts seemed to wiggle as she said this with glee. I stared at them and she blushed when she noticed what I was doing. She grabbed my face with both of her hands and leaned in. I closed my eyes and leaned in to meet her lips._

_I heard a roar and I opened my eyes. A dragon had emerged from inside the cave and grabbed Myxia. It was too late to save her. She had already been chucked inside his mouth, chewed... and swallowed._

"_MYXI-"_

"A!" I yelled as I stared in front of me and only saw the dashboard. I sighed in relief as it was only a nightmare, although I was sweating all over. I released myself from the seatbelt and placed my hands on the dashboard as I was breathing heavily. I took off my coat and got some restored cool oxygen come closer to my body.

My long red wristbands now felt like their were choking my wrists and I immediately pulled them off. The peacefulness of the cool air blowing on my skin was disrupted by a sudden shake that made me fall to the ground. I placed my arm on the dashboard and pulled myself back up.

I looked around through the 7 windows and saw that to my left, was a desert planet with a green beam launched from a tiny dot on the surface, and ended where our ship was. It was soon before I realised that the dot was getting bigger and a tractor beam was pulling us to the planet surface.

I quickly took the safety procedure I had been for the past day and strapped myself to the chair once again, getting the feeling of boredom from it. "Here we go again," I said to myself, before "skrunch"ing my eyes.

!

I unscrunched my eyes and found that the ship had actually been landed instead of crashed. I once again got out of the hugging seatbelts and managed to disable the pink barrier that stood between me and the wasteland. I took my coat and ran out of the ship, feeling good to be free again. I looked back at the landed vessel and wondered who pulled us and down why did they want me.  
BANG!

I ran straight into a wall, and fell back to the sand. I climbed back once my vision became unblurry and saw that the wall was the barrier of a factory.

"Otttttttto!" I looked up and saw two figures with gauntlets on their wrists, lowering their way down with a rope attached to them. My neck felt painful as they slowly climbed down and landed behind me. I turned around to meet and old friend.

"Gleeman…" I snarled.

"Otto…" he replied. "I haven't seen you since when you graduated and took off with that girl that I almost accidentally killed."

I gave him an angry look that he replied with the same, and I approached him until our noses almost touched. Suddenly, I gave a hug to the Slademan I hadn't seen for over 20 years, who was now a cyborg and had a distinct metal hand that seemed to cover a yellow one before it. I turned to the person beside who had disappeared. I heard a croak and looked down to see a frog at my feet that turned into a businessman from Mernasia, where the red hairs on the monkey village chief's necklace originated.

After 20 years, Vox had a lot to explain to me.

* * *

The sound of metal woke Otto up and he felt the hard grip of Vox's metallic hand pull him into an upright position. He heard his gruff voice speak to him, but he was still delirious and couldn't make out what Vox was saying.

Master, in the form of a little girl, held Otto upright and told him that they were only able to find him by the metal he knocked around earlier somehow. Otto told him that he gasped for air and felt almost possessed, and Master turned away like he was keeping a secret.

Otto placed his hand on Master's shoulder and she transformed into a shovel. Vox picked him up and started digging out the rubble more efficiently. Otto held his forehead that ached like it was repeatedly smashed into a wall a thousand times, and then realised he had to do his duty and help the excavation. He looked around the pile of rubbish surrounding him and spotted a funnel-shaped object that he stuck into a pole and started helping his old friend.

Meanwhile, Drek managed to lift a huge steel girder off him and was swarmed by more falling metal. He shook his head and spat a bottle cap that fell in his mouth. He managed to get to his stubby little feet, only to fall frontwards. He began crawl and dig through the metal parts, like the sand at the bottom of a sandpit, searching for that little shovel, like Drek was searching for the only thing that could make his way out of the junkyard. The pad that could transform him like the time he joined the VA.

* * *

I opened my eyes and could just only breathe through the last of the oxygen supply left in this mecha, as my new planet did not have an atmosphere yet. I picked up the oxygen tank nearby with all my strength and placed the hose in my mouth.

I kicked the glass at the front of the mecha and crawled out, with the oxygen tank repeated hitting the ground. I took the hose out and coughed, before placing back in again. I gazed at the dull orange sky, which would usually be beautiful, but not tonight. Tonight, this could be my end, kneeling on this grassy plain, waiting for my life to end.

In the corner of my left eye, I spotted a twinkle of red. I slowly turned my head towards it and saw a bright red jewel, shaped like one you would find on a ring. Except this ruby was 10 times bigger, worth probably a billion bolts, and it was sitting here on this planet. My planet.

This ruby could provide for an entire civilisation with ease, and I imagined all the Blarg sitting around a long dining table, with me sitting on a throne at the front. We were all laughing and having a good time, without the stench of pollution intoxicating our noses. But then I almost forgot about polluting this planet as well for more money than the ruby 60 times.

I gave an evil look and chuckled, looking up at the sky, and noticing the Deplanetizor, being tilted towards this planet. It looked like I wasn't going to have a civilisation to ruin and get money for it through my anonymous provider, as I was about to be blown to bits by the Deplanetizor, my own weapon, used against me by that furry little rat and his metal lunch box.

Desperately, I ran to the ruby that was still shining as a bolt from the Deplanetizor charged up. I dived for it and clutched it as the bolt was released from its hold and fired straight into the core of my planet. I heard a rip and suddenly my whole body was pushed out. I opened my eyes and witnessed the shell of my planet breaking away from the molten core, including the piece of land my mecha was on. I was immediately surprised at the fact that the mecha, a suit much stronger than myself, was falling apart when I was clutching onto the ruby and had no protection on me what-so-ever.

This anomaly baffled me as the clump of land I was situated on eventually floated out of the destroyed planet's sight. Unfortunately, I was never going to know how, because the oxygen supply had almost ran out, and I could feel myself weakening, and imagined what my skin looked like at the moment. Was it turning blue, green, yellow, GREY? I shook off the thought of my skin being ruined and I looked at my surroundings.

My gaze was only met by stars sparkling like they always do, joined by a few planets in the distance. To pass my dying minutes, I tried to figure out what these planets were. I noticed the planet Metropolis to the left of me, the size of a golf ball. I thought I saw Daxx as well, containing a robotic facility founded by a Batalian hunter who won big at Annihilation Nation, and always dreamed of having a robotic family.

As I gazed at the Zeldrin Starport, still in construction, Metalis and Shaar, my oxygen supply finally ran out. I heavily breathed out the last of the oxygen situated in my lungs, then laid down, holding the ruby against my chest, and finally closed my eyes for the last time of my life.

…

….

…..

..

…..

I gasped for air, but soon realised that I didn't need air. Somehow, my body did not oxygen anymore. But, how was I alive? I remember that the oxygen supply ran out, and I looked at the empty bottle next to me and it had ran out a few minutes ago. I looked down at the ruby on my….metal chest. My whole body was made of metal, including one of my eyes. The only organic piece of my body was my head.

After my moment of shock at what had happened to my body, I looked down and saw that the ruby was glowing.

_I made you this way. I saved your life twice. You life belongs to me now._

I shook the strange voice out of my head and threw the ruby away. Standing up, I began to walk off and find a place where it was most comfortable. I found a large patch of grass near the edge of the land and laid down on it.

_I am your master now. You must owe me your life. You are in debt and you will become my servant._

"NO!" I thought. I didn't want to be a servant of anyone, yet this ruby seemed to be alive and telepathically communicating with me, ordering me to give up everything I had. But did I have anything to give up?

I didn't have anything to give up. My work was destroyed, like my body and then I realised that life had already belonged to the ruby, because my body was created by it, minus the head, which was like a base part that it graffified around.

I shouldn't have been thinking like this. It was the ruby that was manipulating my mind to think like this. But I didn't have anything to give up…The ruby wasn't stopping. I had to get rid of it. Without caring that it was valuable, I stood up and was about to walk over to where I left it, before noticing it was right beside me. I picked it up in anger threw it off the clump of rock I was on, and watched it as it floated away, only blinking when it had finally went out of sight.

I laid back down in relief and closed my eyes to rest. Suddenly, I was jolted to the left. I looked up and saw that a beam had hit the right side of the land and tilted it to the left. A single snake slithered from the impact site and charged towards me. I only stared at it as it began to glow magenta and shift into a pink blob.

"I am Qyffnisikdjaur, but you may call me Master," the pink blob spoke. I asked if he was the ruby that was overtaking my mind, but he told me he was attracted to it and needed to get here as quickly as possible. I asked him how he got here, because I threw it away a few minutes ago. He responded by asking me what that object beside me was.

I looked down to my right and saw the ruby, waiting for me. Now I was extremely frustrated and not caring what Master wanted, I threw it away with all my strength. Master transformed into a net and caught the ruby, before shifting back to his original form. He told me to come with him and he once again transformed, but this time into a rocket. With nothing to lose, I jumped on his back and held tightly as we blasted off into space.

I could barely see anything due to the speed of the rocket, and all I could see were different coloured spheres and flickering lights zooming past me. We were lurched to the right as a giant rock passed where we were before we moved. I almost slipped off once, but I manage to climb my way back on.

We finally slowed down once we entered the atmosphere of a desert planet and I was thrown back and fell towards the ground. I opened my eyes and I only saw sand in my eyes. I got up and brushed the sand off my body and looked around. My headache did not hinder my view of the area, and I could see were sand dunes and facility over yonder.

A yellow space limo hovered over from the facility to my side, and the door opened automatically. I guessed this was Master under another form, so I sat in the limo and waited as it took me to the facility.

On the way, I was treated to a tour by the computer, telling me about the cloning project and an alliance created by Master, who was searching for villains to dominate the universe. I immediately wanted to join, because this would be a chance to defeat Ratchet and Clank, but then I realised that we would have to wait many years to search for villains who were currently working on their own.

The limousine finally stopped, and I hopped out and immediately ran inside, checking out all of the progress made by Master. I was suddenly pulled back by a giant claw, and taken outside, before being dropped on a pad. The giant creature that pulled me out was Master and I asked him what was going on. He told me that I made the ruby angry and is now attacking both of us. The ruby was floating in the sky and started spinning before hovering above Master and drilling downwards. Master rolled out of the way as the ruby plowed into the ground, and he told me to think about using the pad below, before the ruby resurfaced and carried Master up and dropped him on the ground.

I squinted my eyes while thinking as hard as I could about using the pad, and then gave up and opened my eyes, realising that my body had turned into a giant robot, just like the Ultra-Mech Unlimiteds my employees created.

I looked back up to the blinding sun and gazed at the ruby drilling diagonally towards my head. With my new mecha powers, I grabbed the tiny ruby with my hand and threw it over towards a volcano, where it accidentally drilled inside and caused lava to start spilling out of the top, slowly sliding it's way down to the sandy ground.

Master and I thought it was all over, until a huge explosion sounded in the air and fiery rocks began to rain down on us. I shielded Master from the debris and the rocks damaged my back greatly, but not enough to shut me down. Once, the debris stopped hitting, I faced the volcano again and saw the ruby fall out the hole it drilled.

Master followed me to the location it landed and saw it growing pale, then back to red, growing pale, then back to red. Master examined it and found out that it went brain-dead from the eruption, but it's powers are unharmed. He gave it to me for me to use, so I attached it to a staff that Master had created for any magical foes that we could use, and then I finally officially entered the cloning facility and headquarters…

* * *

My body turned huge and metal shrapnel slipped off my growing head, as Master, Otto and Vox were alarmed by the sound and were staring at my hugeness. All was silent for a while until Vox said, "Well, that's one way to get out of this junkyard."

Master, Vox and Otto all climbed onto Drek's back like lunch in a school bag and watched as Drek put his plan into action, by walking to the centre of the scrap metal, and used a blast from his ruby staff to clear the foundation of steel beams and crushed robots.

But to everyone's surprise, Tachyon and Nefarious had disappeared…

Chapter 8 Preview

_Tehctar, with his prodigy-like skills, landed the __Unipose with no guidance, and not to mention, no fuel. Ratchet walked out of the ship and was unfortunately still on the desert planet of Dethrona, a planet of dehydration and similarity, a planet of wild creatures trying to survive on meat and dangerous volcano that could crush an anvil._

_Ratchet started walking to his right and saw scrap metal spread out across the field, and he stepped over them and looked around to see if there was anyone. He soon realised that he was standing near the cloning facility that had exploded and that his friends were lying unconscious on the ground._


	8. It's All Over Or Is It?

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_And explosion at the VA Headquarters erupts with Clank, Talwyn and Qwark barely escaping, while Ratchet and Tehctar find the ship in a mess and Arv deactivated. Master, the leader of the VA, finds Vox, who helps him find Otto and Drek. Drek transforms into a mecha and blows the scrap metal away, but finds Nefarious and Tachyon missing…_

_Chapter 8: It's All Over…Or Is It?_

"ARV!" yelled Tehctar, as he ran over to his friend's deactivated body. Tehctar grabbed his power core which had fallen on the ground and placed it back in his body through the open panel in his back. He then began to rewire the life back into him while Ratchet ran to the cockpit to find some answers. Among the papers and files that had been torn up, Ratchet checked all the systems on the dashboard and found that the escape pod had been ejected containing the raider of the ship, who messed the place up and deactivated Arv.

Ratchet searched for any evidence containing the identity of the raider, and almost immediately checked any recently recorded footage, and saw the most recent one called "A Warning to Tehctar". He played the message and was greeted by the figure of what seemed to be the Galactic President, except with a purple skin colour, instead of the yellowish-brown Cazares usually have, and with a distinctive scar on his right cheek.

_I know your true identity. I may have been cloned from an imprisoned creature who was an experiment to the VA, but that doesn't mean I wasn't able to see through your disguise. Let this be a warning to you, that if you don't admit your true identity before "Freeday" this week, which I believe to be 7 Takans, then I'll do it for you._

The message cut out, but Ratchet didn't notice because he wondered too much. One Takan equalled 7 hours, which meant that Tehctar had two days to reveal his true identity. But Ratchet wondered if Tehctar really wasn't his name and he was just disguising himself from something. He also realised that the Galactic President look-alike was cloned from the President because he was an experiment to the VA. Ratchet asked himself if he had ever heard of the VA, but then told himself that two minds are greater than one, and called for Tehctar, who had finished repairing Arv. Ratchet showed Tehctar the footage he found and waited for an explanation, but Tehctar hesitated, wondering where to start.

"Look," Tehctar started. "I had to run away from a group of bandits who were hunting me for sport, and they hired an elite warrior from the Villainous Alliance to track me down once I had disguised myself, and I know. You are probably wondering how because I told you that my mother sent me away in a rocket. That was a lie, and you probably think that I am a threat to you, but you are going to have to trust me, and I can't show or tell you my true form otherwise the "Scarzare" (as I nicknamed it) will be able to track me down immediately. Please, help me defeat this warrior and I'll be in full debt to you. Just know that I someone you should trust."

Thinking about whether he should trust him and who he really was, Ratchet reluctantly agreed to help him, on the condition that Tehctar will help him find his friends. Tehctar's face lit up and agreed to find his friends and then take down Scarzare. But his face then dimmed when he realised that only Arv could pilot the ship, called the "Unipose", and his flight maneuverability circuits were damaged in the raid.

Tehctar then offered to make Ratchet a meal, because they were both starving from travelling through the desert. Ratchet showed his kindness and helped Tehctar make the huge meal they needed to satisfy their hunger and guzzled the water he was given. Ratchet looked at the tracking beam again, but it was still acting crazy and decided to not rely on it. Tehctar decided to show Ratchet all the junk he collected on the desert, which interested Ratchet greatly, and then a great idea popped into Ratchet's head.

* * *

Tehctar, with his prodigy-like skills, landed the Unipose with no guidance, and not to mention, no fuel. Ratchet walked out of the ship and was unfortunately still on the desert planet of Dethrona, a planet of dehydration and similarity, a planet of wild creatures trying to survive on meat and dangerous volcano that could crush an anvil.

Ratchet started walking to his right and saw scrap metal spread out across the field, and he stepped over them and looked around to see if there was anyone. He soon realised that he was standing near the cloning facility that had exploded and that his friends were lying unconscious on the ground.

Ratchet kneeled down beside Talwyn and held her in his arms as Tehctar exited the Unipose ran over to Ratchet was. Ratchet told him to take Clank and Qwark and put them in the ship. Tehctar obeyed as Talwyn finally started to open her eyes, and she only saw Ratchet's head.

"Ratchet!" she exclaimed as her lips met his unexpectedly. Ratchet was shocked but quickly went with the flow, as Tehctar finally managed to carry Qwark to the door of the Unipose and started to try and push him in, but he was too big to fit. Ratchet carried her to door of the Unipose where Tehctar managed to push Qwark in by walking back and running into him, waking him up.

Tehctar followed them inside and joined Ratchet in the dining room, where he told Talwyn to look after Clank while he, Tehctar and Qwark carried the remains of the Aphelion back in. After a hour of scavenging the scattered ship and making multiple trips to the Unipose placing the remains in the weapons room, all vital parts of the ship were piled up and Tehctar took the fuel tank from the Aphelion and loaded it into the Unipose, while Ratchet gathered Talwyn, Qwark and Clank (who had awoken) and told them about Tehctar and the Scarzare, and that Tehctar had a little over two days to reveal his true identity so the bandits could hunt him down again and kill him.

Qwark was skeptical on whether they should trust him, but Clank asked Tehctar who the Scarzare was working for, and Clank returned with the conclusion that Nefarious, Tachyon, Vox, Otto and Drek were all members of the Villainous Alliance, and they had captured the Galactic President from the Solana Galaxy and used him to clone the monstrosity that was hired to track down Tehctar. When asked on how he came to this conclusion, he told them that when storming the VA Headquarters, he saw a banner with the letters VA.

Ratchet then realised that helping Tehctar would help them take out the remaining forces of the VA and they all helped Tehctar begin to pilot the Unipose. Qwark and Talwyn helped Tehctar with the readouts, while Ratchet and Clank tried to repair Arv's flight maneuverability circuits, but failed to as the circuits had been stolen by the bandits as a way to try and ground the Unipose indefinitely. Tehctar asked Talwyn to find out where the nearby junkyard was, so he could find a chip that allows Vullards to pilot any ship.

Qwark found the nearest junkyard to be on Mernasia, home to the orangutans in which the junkyard owner is a cousin to Skrunch, who would help them on the planet because of Qwark's presence. Talwyn located a landing pad on Mernasia a 5 minute walk away from the junkyard on the planet, and Tehctar began to fire up the engines and finally escape from Dethrona.

"Mernasia, here we come!" yelled Tehctar in excitement as they exited the atmosphere of the desert planet, while everyone else in the ship started cheering. Aside from all the commotion, Ratchet signalled for Clank to follow him into the weapons room. Clank did so and Ratchet asked him if he could use the Zoni in his Zoni Vessel to fix the Aphelion, but Clank said that the last he saw the Zoni was when they went back into the Vessel moments before the explosion. Clank then asked Ratchet if he found the Vessel when searching for parts of the Aphelion, but Ratchet said that Qwark or Tehctar might have found it and placed it in the pile.

Tehctar put the Unipose into autopilot, which he found out how to use with the help of Talwyn and Qwark, and offered them all something to eat. They gladly accepted and he began to make his way to the dining room, but was distracted by Ratchet and Clank rummaging around inside the pile of Aphelion's parts. He asked them what were doing and Ratchet asked him if he had brought in the Zoni Vessel. Tehctar was confused at what they meant, and Ratchet told him that it's a black cylinder thing. Tehctar went back into the cockpit and searched through his bag, before pulling out the Vessel, and he asked them if they meant this.

Ratchet ran to Tehctar and hugged him tightly, asking him why he didn't put it in the pile. Tehctar replied by telling them that he thought it was a piece of junk he could sell at a junkyard. Ratchet released the Zoni from the Vessel and Clank asked them to repair the Aphelion. The Zoni worked their magic and all the pieces of the Aphelion floated in the air and then rushed into their proper positions, sealing themselves together, minus the coat of paint and upgrades. Ratchet didn't feel right, because he felt that the reparation was too easy, and then Clank reminded him that there was no fuel tank, because Tehctar used it for the Unipose, and there was no room to fly out.

Tehctar continued towards the kitchen as Ratchet rebooted Aphelion and began talking to her and Clank walked back to the cockpit. Talwyn got up from her seat and Clank kindly took over, and she walked into the weapons room, and sat in the Aphelion with Ratchet.

She asked him casually if the Aphelion was working to standards and her answer was good one. Ratchet then had a another good idea and went to the kitchen to ask Tehctar if they could use the remaining fuel from the Unipose to put into the Aphelion to fly down to Mernasia while Tehctar and Arv took care of the Unipose above the atmosphere, in case they were taken hostage by some creatures and needed assistance.

Tehctar agreed and gave him a crystal attached to string. He told Ratchet that it was a Communication Crystal, allowing two people to speak to each other from any distance. The best part about it was that Ratchet didn't need to take it out. He just had to turn it on and Tehctar would be able to speak to Ratchet, and vice versa.

Ratchet wondered how they were going to get the Aphelion out, but Tehctar had an ingenious plan. He would get everyone to strap into their seatbelts and then he'd open the windows at the front of the cockpit, allowing space for the Aphelion to escape. Ratchet and Talwyn walked back into the weapons room and began to carry the Aphelion into the cockpit, before dropping it near the exit.

Tehctar arrived back at the cockpit with a tray of drinks and the green cupcakes that Tehctar had liked when he first came onboard the Unipose. Everyone was surprised at how well the cupcakes tasted, and they all helped Tehctar make more. However, when they were all happy and having a great time on the Unipose, a loud "BING! BING! BING!" repeatedly sounded throughout all the speakers.

* * *

Tehctar ran back to the cockpit and saw that the Unipose had reached the orbit of Mernasia. Tehctar turned off the engines and let the Unipose stay still as they finished making their meals and all sat at the dining room, chatting about their plans and how their lives have been.

Talwyn talked about the time she finally boarded the Apogee Spaceship, and checked around, but noticed it was empty. While onboard, she saw the Aphelion being attack by Valkyries, so he piloted it into the heat of the battle and saved the Aphelion from being destroyed. However, she found no use of the spaceship, as it was empty, and left it to drift in space. She then followed the Aphelion in her sleek, black with green stripes, ship and then joined Ratchet and Clank, leaving her ship at the Apogee Spaceship.

Qwark talked about how after being stranded on an asteroid with Snowball, they grew closer and closer together, before being saved by a charming rich young man who had a gigantic spaceship, and he offered to drop them off at the nearest planet, Grokley. When they arrived, Snowball found a tribe of War Groks who didn't like Qwark and tried to attack him. After escaping with Ratchet and Clank, Snowball stayed Grokley with the tribe.

Clank then spoke about what happened before they left the Great Clock. He told them that after blasting off with Ratchet after defeating Dr. Nefarious, Ratchet was sad about the Lombaxes, and wished he had another Lombax to keep him company as tried to get the Lombaxes out of the alternate dimension. Then after a few quests to other planets, Clank got the idea of finding Angela Cross to help them. So they took off to the Great Clock, where Sigmund created the tracking beam that would help them locate Angela once they saw her.

By this time, everyone had finished their meals and prepared themselves to launch the newly-repaired Aphelion. Tehctar devised a plan to attach two wide claws to the top of the Unipose, to grab the Aphelion when it lands, and then build a tunnel that contains a ladder which drops down to the weapons room. However, the Aphelion would need a trapdoor on the chassis so the occupants could escape, so he pulled the Zoni out of the Vessel and got Clank to ask them to build a sort of trapdoor on the floor of the Aphelion.

Once their foolproof docking system was installed, Clank and Tehctar both strapped themselves into their seats and Tehctar placed an oxygen mask on his nose and mouth.

Ratchet, Talwyn and Qwark seated themselves in the Aphelion, and prepared to fire the engines. Clank checked the readouts on all the panels and gave Tehctar the thumbs up. Tehctar turned on the Communication Crystal and told Ratchet (in a muffled voice) that all systems were go and he was preparing to open the windows.  
Ratchet checked the Aphelion's systems and told Tehctar that Aphelion was ready for launch. Tehctar told Ratchet to fire up the engines the moment he opened the windows. Rocket propulsion burst out of the engine of the Aphelion and slowly began to move along the ground. Ratchet angled her up and managed to fire off a second burst of engines to move a lot faster and almost immediately unusually flew out of the Unipose's cockpit with ease.

Tehctar closed the windows back down and his body stabilised after almost being sucked out of the cockpit, and took his oxygen mask off, giving the thumbs up to Clank. Ratchet carefully checked the engines on the Aphelion, making sure the ship is stabilised and will ensure a safe flight. Ratchet checked to see if Talwyn was happy, and saw her sitting there with her eyes closed, daydreaming about Ratchet. Qwark noticed what was about to happen, and grabbed a nearby comic book about Captain Starshield and buried his head in it.

Talwyn felt a pair of lips touch hers and opened eyes, seeing that Ratchet was kissing her. She felt a sudden jolt of adrenaline and pulled Ratchet closer to her, snogging him passionately. Her hands moved up towards the back of his head, while his slowly wrapped around her waist, in a moment of eternal bliss.

Ratchet's silence was interrupted by the sudden voice of Tehctar, who was talking to him through the Communication Crystal, asking if he was alright and if the Aphelion was stable. Ratchet rolled his eyes and let his grip of Talwyn go as he reached back into his seat and Tehctar that everything was brilliant with an excited tone in his voice. Tehctar was suspicious, and asked what was going in there. Talwyn giggled as Ratchet grabbed the Communication Crystal and turned it off, only hearing a sharp "HEY!" before it was switched off.

Ratchet leaned back in towards Talwyn, before hearing the Aphelion announcing that they were about to enter the atmosphere of Mernasia, and had to sit in their seats. He lightly commented that he's never going to catch a break, and sat back in his seat, placing his hands on the steering wheel, piloting the Aphelion strategically through the ozone layer bursting through the clouds and finally gazing at the palm trees surrounded by sand and grass, looking like a mix between Florana and Pokitaru.

* * *

He slowed the Aphelion down allowing it to level out and search the planet for the junkyard, after Qwark finally let his head out of the comic book. Ratchet turned on the Holo-vision installed on the Aphelion, switching through many channels before settling on Galaxy's Funniest Superhero Bloopers on Blarg TV, featuring Captain Qwark. Even Qwark himself found some of the bloopers funny, before he realised that he was laughing at himself.

While watching the Holo-vision, Ratchet noticed that the junkyard was nearby and turned the HV off, and spiralled the Aphelion into a nose dive before leveling out near the landing pad, and then aimed towards it, stopping the ship just above the pad, before placing it in stabilisation mode. Ratchet jumped of the ship and offered his hand to Talwyn, who gracefully accepted. Qwark, on the other hand, got stuck in his seat and eventually himself out, his bottom sore, and then grabbed his comic book and joined the other two.

A monkey who looked similar to Skrunch, except having a cowlick on his hair, approached them and asked them if they were interested in anything in his scrapheap. To Ratchet's surprise, he, Talwyn and Qwark could understand the monkey. Qwark stepped up towards him and asked him if he was related to Skrunch. He told them that he was best friends with his cousin and frequently communicated with him by sending "monkey mail" to each other. Qwark asked him if they could scavenge his junkyard for anything they might find useful, and pay for them using "monkey tokens" Skrunch had given to him.

The monkey graciously accepted and took three of their coins as an entrance fee, and let them take 3 things they wanted for free. Qwark and Talwyn began digging through piles to look for fuel or ship upgrades while Ratchet turned on his Communication Crystal to ask Tehctar if he knew why they could understand Skrunch's cousin. Tehctar was sitting on the dining table with Clank playing Galactic Chess and heard Ratchet voice through the Communication Crystal, asking him if he knew what was going on.

"Thank you," said Tehctar sarcastically. "If you had let me finish, before you turned the Communication Crystal off, I would have told you that the Crystal allows you to understand writing and speech of any language." Ratchet complied as they both turned their Crystals off and Tehctar continued concentrating on his chess game, before being defeated by Clank and his Jobian Saur-beast.

Talwyn was standing on top of a junk pile, moving sheets of metal away before she dug up an Intensive Environmental Fuel Core (IEFC for short), rarely used, in amongst broken Sweeper Bots from Megapolis. She called out for Ratchet and Qwark, who were busy looking in their own piles on the other side of the scrapheap. They stopped looking and began to run as fast as they could to the location of the yell. Qwark managed to reach Talwyn first, and they both waited for Ratchet, but he never arrived. Talwyn for him once more, and he yelled back to her, telling her that he found something sticking out of a pile and that he was going to join her soon.

Talwyn agreed and showed Qwark the IEFC, and told him that it was extremely rare and usually only rich people could afford them, as they used the environment around them, converted them into energy and provide ever-lasting fuel for any ship. She noticed Qwark had two things in both his hands and she asked him what they were.

Qwark told her that the tank in his right hand was large fuel tank, commonly used by adventurers on long trips because it was cheap and refillable. He guessed that the previous owner retired and sold his fuel tank to a junkyard. Qwark then moved onto the other item, which was a used Grav-o-metric Warp Drive, still working smoothly.

Talwyn thought it was great, and saw that Ratchet still hadn't arrived. She got impatient and decided to look for him, and dragged Qwark with her. Talwyn turned right at the corner and found Ratchet sitting cross-legged with a bunch of oddly-shaped metal parts and one bigger part on his lap. She asked him what he was doing and Ratchet told her that he found a gun sticking out and all these different parts used to modify it.

Talwyn told him that all of those weapon parts would cost a fortune, so Ratchet stuffed all of them in her jacket and told her to act naturally. She suddenly felt like a bad girl and agreed with a evil tone in her voice. However, they still had four items and would to pay for one of them, so Qwark decided to pay for the large fuel tank, as it was the cheapest.

The all returned to the entrance and the monkey was none-the-wiser. He happily accepted the payment for the fuel tank and sent them on their way, not trying to delay them from their duties.

* * *

By the time they had made their way back to the Unipose, Tehctar had already installed the so-called "landing pad, and they slowly made their way into the claws' grips. Ratchet pushed a button on the Aphelion and the floor of it opened up, revealing a circular wall with a jaggedy pattern on it. Tehctar pressed a button on the cockpit and the jaggedy pattern separated, revealing a tunnel.

No oxygen could escape into space because of a tube that sucked the Aphelion's chassis into place, allowing the two doors to open, creating a tunnel. Ratchet climbed down the ladder in the tunnel and was followed by Talwyn and then Qwark. The door on the bottom of the Aphelion closed by the time Qwark had reached Ratchet and Talwyn while another door below Ratchet opened, allowing a ladder to extend to the ground, which Ratchet followed to the ground, along with Talwyn and Qwark.

Talwyn told Tehctar about what they had found, and he was extremely excited, and offered to go back up into the Aphelion and take it down, minus the large fuel tank he was going install on the Aphelion. He chucked down the gun and Ratchet caught it, and he asked Talwyn to take off her jacket, which she agreed to do.

When Tehctar had finished installing the fuel tank in the Aphelion and the Grav-o-metric Warp Drive and the IEFC in the Unipose, Ratchet had finished choosing his custom design, and placed the rest of the parts on the gun rack in the weapons room. The gun had a tri-barrel, allowing him to shoot 100 bullets before reloading, and allowed 1500 bullets in one ammo box.

The gun also had a deadly-aim sniper attachment for enemies far away, a laser pointer which allowed Ratchet to aim at enemies easier and five special rockets for tougher targets. Tehctar noticed that Ratchet would need more ammo after fighting and showed him the two cubicles in the dining room he was situated it in. One had a toilet inside and the other had a weapons vendor, owned by the Mimbian Co., Woldgon Galaxy's running weapons team.

Ratchet checked the vendor and saw that 5 weapons were in stock, however, he only had 3,000 bolts on him and had to choose only 1 or 2.

There was the Paperimo, which turned enemies into paper airplanes and cost 1,500 bolts.

There was also the Saw Blaster, a shotgun-like weapon which released five saw blades extremely fast in front of where deployed, slicing through enemies at an extremely fast speed and cost 5,000 bolts.

There was also the Goopy Coupler, which deployed a net of goop over an enemy and suffocated them and cost 3,000 bolts.

The was also the Mimbius, which fired a grey ball covered with red tubes that travelled also over the radius of enemies and disintegrated whatever it collided into and cost 2,500 bolts.

Lastly, there was the Windy Barrier, which was a floating sheet situated in front of the user and blew away any enemies that strayed near it, causing minimal damage but intensifying if the enemy hits a solid object and cost 3,000 bolts.

Ratchet pondered for awhile but finally settled on buying the Windy Barrier and started saving up 5,000 bolts for the Saw Blaster, which looked really useful. He made his selection and the Windy Barrier immediately appeared in front of him, floating, before dropping into his hands. He placed the weapon his wrist and stared at it's awesomeness, before being interrupted by Tehctar, who told him that the vendor could also sell armor swell, and Ratchet checked it and saw that the Standard Mimbian Armor was available for 1,000 bolts, which would shield Ratchet from 10% of damage.

So, Ratchet now had to save up 6,000 bolts to prepare for the epic battle against the Scarzare, but they still had to prepare the Unipose and the Aphelion, and then on the second day find out where the Scarzare was and take him down. But now they only had **45 hours **remaining…

* * *

Meanwhile, as the Unipose began to move again, with their new IEFC in hand, a woman sat in the cockpit of her small ship, situated on an asteroid, watching the Unipose in the distance.

"Finally, I found him…" said a female voice...

Chapter 9 Preview

_Nefarious looked to the right of him and met the sad eyes of Pervical Tachyon, who felt disgraced at the fact that he was so easily defeated and then so easily captured. They didn't know who captured them or where they were, and then realised what it felt like to be in Ratchet's shoes, when they divided them and then conquered them._

_Then Nefarious remembered that Ratchet and his friends escaped from them, and felt hope that there would be a way to escape from the prison. He told to Tachyon about this and then a voice told them that there was no way to escape. Nefarious looked infront of him and saw the Scarzare, stepping out of the shadows._


	9. Sasha2

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Master, Vox, Otto and Drek are all safe after being trapped in an explosion caused by Ratchet's friends, but they learn that Tachyon and Nefarious have gone missing…_

_Chapter 9: __Sasha2_

"LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOOO-" yelled Nefarious before he froze and his voice was replace by the voices of Lance & Janice being broadcast over the radio.

"Mmmmmmm, oh Janice," smoothly said Lance while making kissing sounds in the background. "I don't care if you're an alien and it is forbidden to be in love, because rules are made to be broken!"

"OH LANCE!" exclaimed Janice, panting and gasping for breath. "All this time you didn't realise that I was an imposter!"

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm…wait…" Lance began to say before Nefarious' head was slapped by Percival Tachyon after he landed in a cell when he was thrown roughly by a guard. Nefarious shook his head and then realised that he was in a prison cell along with Tachyon.

He stood up and checked his surroundings. He was in a single cell with two beds for him and Tachyon to share and anything else was hidden in the shadows, inside the pitch dark room. The room also had a strange purple glow to it, which baffled Nefarious and Tachyon. He wondered about whether the others got out of the explosion alright.

Nefarious stood there imagining all of the others getting perfectly fine and then realise that they had disappeared from the explosion and had no idea where they had gone. Nefarious looked to the right of him and met the sad eyes of Percival Tachyon, who felt disgraced at the fact that he was so easily defeated and then so easily captured. They didn't know who captured them or where they were, and then realised what it felt like to be in Ratchet's shoes, when they divided them and then conquered them.

Then Nefarious remembered that Ratchet and his friends escaped from them, and felt hope that there would be a way to escape from the prison. He told to Tachyon about this and then a voice told them that there was no way to escape. Nefarious looked in front of him and saw the Scarzare, stepping out of the shadows.

"You traitor!" yelled Nefarious. "We created you so you could be a great asset to our army, but when we sent you to Irosia to help that group of bandits, you decided to betray us and tell us that if an explosion is ever triggered that we would be safe in meeting room. Well, YOU LIED! And you decided to capture us when we were weak!"

"Why, thank you for close captioning my plan," said the Scarzare calmly. "Once I've got rid of the rest of you, the gateway will be open for me to destroy that Tehctar and his little friends that he's got. Did you know that one of his friends is a Lombax, one of the last surviving Lombaxes in the universe?"

"Ratchet?" asked Tachyon. "That miserable little Lombax?"

"Ratchet, you say?" asked the Scarzare, before trailing of and then realising something. "Of course, that's why…" he saw the two villains listening and stopped so they wouldn't know, so he turned and left the room turning the purple light off, covering the two in darkness.

Tachyon couldn't see Nefarious anymore, except for the red glows on the side of his torso. He leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes and body tired from the pushing and shoving of the explosion, like a 75% off Christmas sale during the day. His eyes hurt when he kept them open so he closed and never opened them again until they stopped…

* * *

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled as I was swallowed up by the black wormhole. I fell through an endless portal caused by a malfunction in the Dimensionator. However, almost instantly the ride ended and I was floating in space in a new dimension. It seemed to be that in this dimension, I could breathe in space, and I began to shift my weight towards the front of me so I'd move in that direction.

I looked around the empty world and saw only stars twinkling, and lost all hope of ever finding a planet. Suddenly, I heard a soft whirring noise getting louder and louder until a hovercar came into view. It was a convertible and had a green humanoid with no hair and buck teeth seated in it, breathing perfectly fine like myself.

The humanoid saw me floating in space and pulled over next to me. He spoke to me in a southern accent "You need a ride, little partner?". I accepted with an ungrateful tone, and used my cane to pull me in and sit next to the country humanoid. I asked him what dimension we were in and he asked me what a "diebrenshen" was. I then asked him how they could breathe in space. He assumed that I wasn't from around there and told me that over 700 years ago a major inventing company deployed oxygen fields all over space, and also an atmospheric protection field around all hovercars, allowing them to drive in space. He also told me that we were in the outskirts of the known space because he had to drive to his sister's wedding, and they decided to hold it in their new peaceful home away from all the bustling cars. I asked if there were planets in the dimension and he told me that they were planets, moons and floating homes all over the central sectors, but in sectors like the one we were in, there were only a few planets and an average amount of homes for people who like being away from all the commotion.

"Hey, look," said the humanoid. "There's a fuel asteroid just coming into view. We better stop for a refill. Oh, by the way, my name is Hugon." I told Hugon my name as we pulled over to fill the tank. Hugon told me that I could explore the place for as long as I wanted, because the wedding was tomorrow.

The fuel station looked like any other in the Polaris Galaxy, with a guy in a booth next to sets of pumps. I once again tried to see any form of celestial bodies around the asteroid, but alas, none were found. Loud music started blaring in the distance, and Hugon looked distressed after hearing it. I asked him what was going on, and Hugon said that whenever you hear loud music, Brettu will always pass by in his big red cruiser with his mountain of girls. He hoped that Brettu will just pass by and not stop for a refill. Then he wondered why Brettu would be out there in the outskirts instead of partying up the central.

The red vehicle same into sight with a gigantic bulldog-like creature with a large build driving it and many other creatures drinking and cheering for no apparent reason while cat-like girls sat on their laps. The bulldog "thing" spoke with a grubby voice and told them that he was stopping for some fuel. He stopped the car and hopped out, and approached Hugon.

"So Hugon, you going to your sister's wedding too?" asked the bulldog.

"Ummmm, yes," said Hugon nervously. "Of course. I'm her sister-I mean brother! So did she invite you too swell, Brettu?"

"Yahh, but I'm surprised you made it this far, because I thought you'd obviously get lost. HAHAHAA!" exclaimed Brettu before walking off and paying the green humanoid in the booth to fill his tank. He then saw me walking over to Hugon and asked him who I was.

"Oh," said Hugon, surprised. "That's just a hitchfloater I picked up. His name is Percival Tachyon."

"PERCIVAL! HAH! Nice name!" I gave him scowl as Brettu walked back into the car and paid the booth attendant the bolts for the fuel. "See ya at the party-err, wedding," he finished before driving off towards the wedding, with his friends cheering again. I asked Hugon why he was so afraid of Brettu, and he told me that Brettu usually beats up the poor and lonely people like him, and that he was surprised that he was actually quite friendly to him.

Hugon finished filling up the tank and he and I hopped back in the hovercar, before driving off again. He told me that they should be close to his sister's home and that there should be a planet in an atmosphere of dark clouds coming to view. Like he said, a planet of the same description gradually grew until it was big enough to cover my entire vision when looked at.

Hugon thought that the rest of the trip would be peaceful, but he were wrong. A gigantic bolt of lightning ripped through the atmosphere and struck through the hovercar, causing smoke to puff out of the engine and for it to be sucked in by the core's gravity. Thankfully, the atmospheric protection field still worked as we weren't harmed when entering the planet. We fell through a sky of lightning and grey clouds and we eventually landed on a solidified grey cloud, common near the surface of the planet. Hugon told me that he was sorry and started working on repairing the hovercar right away, as he took out a car repair kit he kept in the trunk, just in case he crashed. I saw towers like the ones on Gorn, and was amazed by a giant one towering the sky and a blue energy force trapped inside the spire of the tower, acting as a power source.

I asked Hugon how the people of this dimension got their hands on a energy force such as that. Hugon told me that he heard something in history class about "diebrenshen trainspoorturs" that allowed people to warp to other "diebrenshens", but it was considered too dangerous and was just used a power source for all the companies in the entire galaxy.

I realised that if he drove right into the energy force that I would be able to return to my own dimension and continue my evil plans. But then I realised that I had no more Drophyds or Cragmites to use in battle. But I knew I'd come up with an ingenious plan sooner or later.

Hugon had just finished repairing the car when I hopped in and told him to go into the energy force. He disagreed, seeing as how he had to go to a wedding and that going in there might kill him or make him never able to come back. I told him that I'd find a way to get him back, and Hugon reluctantly agreed.

He started up the engines and Hugon and I took off and flew straight into the energy force, avoiding the bolts of lightning. He began to scream as we disappeared and reappeared in a flash. I looked at the planet nearest to me and recognised it as Vistoria, a blue planet covered completely in water. Hugon turned back to see that the portal that opened when we travelled to my dimension was still open, and I told him it'll hold for about 24 hours.

I told him to look for a desert planet named Fastoon nearby, as I wanted to see what happened to Ratchet. Surely, Fastoon came into view after a few seconds and Hugon turned towards it, getting ready to enter it's atmosphere. But we realised that in my dimension that there would be no oxygen fields around here and only had the backup power installed in the hovercar to help us.

Hugon told me to take the wheel while he checked the backup power, and was confused as it somehow had unlimited power inserted into it. Then, the steering wheel suddenly lurched to the right and maximum power was shifted into the engines which boosted the hovercar forwards until we started travelling what seemed to be past the speed of light and teleported into the atmosphere of a desert planet unexpectedly and slowly stopping just before hitting the ground.

I jumped out of the hovercar onto the sandy ground and Hugon followed. There was a cloning facility in the distance. I heard a high-pitched falling sound and looked up and saw a pink blob crash on the ground blow me and Hugon off our feet. I hit the ground, and then sat up and shook my head, making my eyes clearer. I was fascinated by the humongous pinkish blob and asked him what his name was. He just said that most people called him "Master", and that he was creating an alliance between all of the greatest villains in the universe and wanted me to join.

I asked the same questions as Vox did when he joined, and he told me the exact response, along with the fact that I get to work alongside three evil villains from the Solana Galaxy. I told him that I'd join and I brought Hugon along to show him some of the technology the dimension was capable of using, and he was mesmerised during the whole tour.

Once it came to a close, I told Master that I had to send Hugon back to his own dimension, and Master transformed into a spaceship which shocked us greatly, and I hopped in, feeling strange that I was sitting inside someone. While travelling back to the portal, I asked Master how he found me and how he controlled the hovercar. Master told me that when he learned about me and my supposed demise, he didn't believe I'd be dead and got a bunch of workers to create a Cragmite tracker that tells the location of any Cragmite in the dimension.

He then told me that he had a vehicle controller he had kept for ages and paired it with a teleporter, and so me and Hugon thought we were going at the speed of light when really it was an illusion created by a side-effect of the pairing. He used it to control the hovercar, because it was moving the exact movements as the dot on the Cragmite tracker.

With no further questions, I watched as Hugon gave his last goodbye and drove back into the closing portal, and I deeply hoped that he'd reach his wedding and have a good life in the alternate dimension…

* * *

Tachyon opened his eyes and was still in the dark, not being able to see anything. Nefarious was asleep next to him, and suddenly a gained the feeling of fear, and held Nefarious tightly, afraid that they might die in this prison. While he was scared of just a rat running into a wall, thinking that anything would kill him, a white rectangular light shone suddenly from the far left wall, blinding him and forcing him to squint his eyes.

The purple lights were turned back on, except this time they lit up the shadows as well, and this allowed him to see the beauty who looked exactly like the former Mayor of Metropolis, Sasha Phyronix, except, like the Scarzare, was purple and had a scar on her right cheek.

Tachyon remembered that when they cloned the Galactic President, a fetus mutated inside him and suddenly burst out of his stomach, causing no damage to him, but created an exact clone of his original's daughter. She was wearing a tradition warrior's suit which was a think brown top over her torso, with a belt and black shorts, tightly wrapped by multiple spirals of a think black leather, and she wore a tiara on her head which was a halo fitted with a line down the middle and rising up into a point at the front.

She walked in with a tray of food and water and a frown, then kneeled down and gave Tachyon the tray for him and Nefarious to eat. She told him that even she was a mutation of an experiment, she noticed how free Sasha's life was with her dad, but her dad was just a mean old fart and she wanted to be more like Sasha.

She then slipped Tachyon the key to the jail cell and whispered that she would help him and Nefarious escape if he would let her run away and her own life. Tachyon excited agreed and silently shook Nefarious so that his internal robotic nerve system would reawaken his body, and Tachyon told him that they were going to escape and, even though he was sleep-deprived, didn't about his tired eyes and followed him and Sasha2.

They opened the door Sasha2 came in and saw a pair of Mimbian soldiers patrolling the hallway. Sasha2 waited until they turned around and then she silently slid across the hall and simultaneously kicked them to the ground landed on their heads, knocking them out. Impressed, Tachyon and Nefarious followed her as she opened the closet to the side and pulled the two soldiers in, stripping them of their clothes and giving them to Nefarious and Tachyon, who dressed in them and looked really out of place.

They asked Sasha2 if they'd attract attention, but she told them that the Scarzare barely pays any attention to the soldiers and just walks by even if they were extremely short, or looked like a robot. Then she stated that the soldiers are not permitted to make comments about other soldiers otherwise they are disintegrated.

The soldier's helmets were like the medieval ones, except they were an olive colour and had a lens covering the face, which allowed soldiers to target enemies at deadly accuracy, while their platebody was again olive with metallic abs and black gauntlets, with a black cape on their backs. They were covered in olive platelegs from the waist down and wore black boots.

Tachyon didn't fit into his uniform so he just left the platebody and platelegs on the ground and just wore the cape around him and the helmet. They took their guns and escorted Sasha2 into the soldier's hangout room, where it turned into a four-way intersection joined by a place where soldier's undress and chat while off-duty. Many of the soldiers in the room were Mimbian, but there were some other species as well, like Terachnoids or Cyborgs.

Most of them didn't notice Sasha2 or just ignored her while some other greeted her before doing back to their business. She found a white cape lying on the ground and asked if it belonged to anyone. However, no-one came to claim it, so she wrapped the cape around her, and attached it to her suit.

She told her "escorts" to take her through the left door, and they took her there, where the door automatically opened for her and found another hallway with soldiers on duty. They moved to the side to let her through and they saluted her by, and then went back to work. The walked around the corner and came to another room with intersection, however this one was blank and was just a generic intersection.

Meanwhile, from two floors above, the Scarzare had his Cazarean girls bring him the live security camera footage, and noticed Sasha2 walking into an intersection with his prisoner's disguised as bodyguards. He ordered his personal bodyguards, dressed in orange-brown attire, to locked all doors in the intersection and surround it.

Sasha2 walked in front of the door at the back of the room and it opened, but then suddenly began to close afterwards and she managed to jump through the closing door while Nefarious and Tachyon were trapped in the dark blank room. A personal bodyguard, along with 7 normal soldiers ran to the entrance and the bodyguard told two of the soldiers to take Sasha away, while the rest had their guns ready in case they managed to get out, and the same happened on the other entrances.

Nefarious banged on the door, but Tachyon told him it was no use, as they were perfectly sealed and the only contact with the outside world was the security camera in the corner at the front of the room to the right. He slumped down on the wall, and saw the blue light indicating that the camera was on had faded, and the camera turned off.

Nefarious sat down next to Tachyon who started getting a little teary-eyed and Nefarious held him and told him would be okay. Tachyon returned the hug and told him that throughout all the time they worked together at the VA, he thought that Nefarious was the best villain there. Nefarious disagreed and thought that Tachyon was the best villain, before giving him a kiss on the cheek and giving him a "good night".

Nefarious then closed his eyes and thought about Tachyon and how they met…

* * *

I felt a slap to the face and woke up in a workshop with Lawrence welcoming me back. I remembered that I lost to Ratchet at the Nefarious Space Station, and that the station was about to explode, but then I didn't know what happened next.

Lawrence told me that while escaping, he teleported me out at the last second and took me to the Woldgon Galaxy for repairs, and built a workshop on Fortyse, then repaired me and slapped me because I was playing Lance & Janice once again, and then he told me for the millionth time that we really get that fixed.

I thought about where we were, and then I remembered that Fortyse was a planet with a dark sky and was covered with grey, rocky mountains. Lawrence asked what our next plan was, and I told him that we should try and prepare another army and another strategy to take out Ratchet and Clank solely, without a mega plan like "destroy all squishies" or "rewrite history", and then try out for a master plan after disposed of Ratchet and Clank.

I asked Lawrence if he had built a spaceship while I began to sit up, and he told me that he had prepared a ship days ago, when he nearly completed rebuilding me after months. I also asked what was going on the universe these days and he told me that ownership of the Imperial Fight Festival was sold to somebody else again and that Mimbian Co. rose to intergalactic fame, reaching a few vendors in the Solana, Bogon and Polaris galaxies, hoping to be the best-selling weapons company in those respective galaxies.

He escorted me to the bullet-shaped ship, and we both fitted comfortably in our seats and Lawrence fired up the engines and took the helm. He asked me where we should go first, and I told him that we probably build a factory of some sort back on Fortyse, so I suggested that we asked Ertin Billius, galactic billionaire, to join us, as he has always wanted to secretly assist a supervillain, and he should not be able to turn us down, because I was featured in "Supervillains Weekly" when I built the Biobliterator.

Once we finally arrived at Ertin Billius's mansion on the outskirts of the Woldgon Galaxy, we exited the spaceship and walked up to the front door where two bodyguards blocked it. I asked them if we could see Mr. Billius, and that we were here for the offer of secretly helping villains he send out to . They let us through and we entered the door and met a huge hall with 6 side doors and a large royal staircase shaped like a 'T'.

Ertin was on the staircase, with a blue tuxedo on and a red tie, wearing a pair of black Converse. He had over-gelled black hair sticking up like porcupine spikes and dark brown eyes. He asked us why we were here, and he told him about the offer he made, and then we were told that that was months ago, and the offered had already closed.

We were about to leave, when he asked us if he wanted to take his place in the Villainous Alliance. Before we asked, he said that he would answer all his questions with a story.

_One day, specifically, the day after I posted the offer of secretly working with villains, a snake slithered into the room and transformed with a magenta glow into a pink blob who came to accept the offer. He said that I could work with four of the greatest villains who ever lived and that he could play part in intergalactic domination._

_He was a shapeshifter who could turn into anything and told me that the pink blob was his true form, and that because his named is too confusing to remember, he told me to call him "Master"._

_However, I turned down the offer, as I wanted to live a simple life, but if any other villains came who looked capable enough, I'd give them the offer to take my position.__ He said that if I ever found someone, then I should send them to Dethrona, coordinates 5568-3259._

I asked Lawrence if he was writing all this down, and he complied. I thanked Ertin and began to walk back to my ship, when he asked us if we would like to stay for dinner, as he was inviting guests for a party tonight. Lawrence thought it would be fun and begged me to stay for the party.

With nothing to lose, I agreed and joined Ertin on a tour of the mansion. It felt like we had been through 600 rooms by the end of the tour, and most of the rooms were useless, and we couldn't believe that the toilet was gold and was situated in the middle of an empty room as big at Lawrence's workshop.

Ertin said we could roam the mansion as much as we liked, and if we ever got lost, just press the white circular that can be found in every room. Lawrence and I talked was we walked through the halls, meeting a few early guests who had arrived before the party started, including a human woman in a blue sparkly dress, a short robot on wheels who a tux spray painted on him, and a fat blue creature with a big head who sat in a floating chair.

The woman in the dress stopped us and asked if I was that famous villain who created the Biobliterator and turned everyone into a robot. I told her "yes" and she told me that my plan was fantastic and it was because of Lawrence that I was defeated. Lawrence face turned red and he walked off by himself while she told me that her name was "Synthia". I told her that I was looking forward to the party, and hoped that we could chat later, before she walked off in the opposite direction, and I noticed that Lawrence was missing and ran the hall, running past waiter robots and empty rooms, looking for him.

Eventually, on the last door to the left in the next hallway, I found Lawrence sitting on the side of a bed, crying. I asked him if he crying over what a stupid woman said, he told me that it was a revelation that all of our plans fail because of him. I comforted him and told him that it wasn't Lawrence's fault, it's Ratchet and Clank's fault, and that it was him that got our plans so far before being stopped by those two.

He felt better and thanked me, and then we exited the room together and joined the party as many people started arriving to have some fun. I grabbed a glass of wine from a passing waiter and I thanked him, and then swallowed it all down at once, and then held it in my hands like a rich person.

We saw many guests conversing at the main hall at the entrance and we joined the crowd. I saw Synthia and I waved at her as we sat down on the red throne-like sofas. A Slademan in a blue suit sat down next to us, and he asked us if we had ever heard of a guy called "Master". I told him about the conversation between me and Ertin Billius earlier and he told me that he worked with him as he sipped some more wine from his glass.

I asked for his name and he told me his name was Gleeman Vox, and I told him that my name was Doctor Nefarious, and he told me that Master had been looking all over the universe for me, and then supposed that we were dead. He said that Master wanted another villain for the team and sent him to check the party for any villains who were evil enough to be famous, and that Vox was going to enjoy his reward when he brings home the legendary Dr. Nefarious.

I told Vox that we would pay a visit to Master once the party was over, and he agreed, because in his opinion the party was spectacular. Lawrence got up from his seat and said that he was going to find someone to chat to, and so I send him on his way and then I went over to Synthia to talk to her.

Once I found her in the crowd, I decided not to as she was talking to a tall gentleman with a bowler hat and an eccentric scientist wearing a fez and holding a mop. I was approached by a short old woman in a paisley dress with her hair tied up in a bun, and she asked me if I was the famous Dr. Nefarious and I told her that I was and why she asked. She said that she was a member of the little-known NefariousFTW Club and that she'd always wanted to meet me. She said that she was sorry that I wasn't able to turn everyone into a robot because of the furry rat and his lunch box.

She offered me a bottle of alcohol and I took it graciously, and then asked her why she wanted everyone turned into a robot. She said that emotions can cause greater damage than any weapon and wanted them removed from the world, and that robots can't die, because if they are deactivated, they can be reactivated.

While she ranted about emotions and robots I kept filling my glass, drinking the alcohol, refilling my glass until the bottle was empty. She then pointed out that they were having performances on the stage in the auditorium and everyone was moving so they could watch and still chat. I walked with her into the auditorium which looked exactly like the hall, except for there being a stage instead of a staircase.

An opera singer wearing a green coat with a furry hem at the top, walked up onto the stage an began to sing her heart out, soothing everyone at the party as they watched her lips make magic. Once her performance ended, everyone clapped and whistled at her and yelled her performance was magnificent, and once the clapping died down, Ertin Billius entered the stage and hoped that we were enjoying ourselves, and then told us that the karaoke contest was about to start and that anyone could ask him to join the contest at any time before the heats ended.

Drunk, I immediately ran through the crowd and was the first one to reach Ertin Billius to join the karaoke contest, and he wished me the best. Soon after, 9 other people joined and the contest started with even more people lining up to have their performance in the contest. I ran up on stage and set the karaoke machine to play a song from a distant galaxy. The music started playing and then I, to the beat, began singing very badly:

_Sun is shining in the sky!_

_There ain't a cloud in sight! It's stopped raining!_

_Everybody's in their play and don't you know?_

_IT'S A BEAUTIFUL NEW DAY! HEY HEY HEY HEY!_

I fell off the stage accidentally and then got back on in time.

_Mr. Blue Sky!_

_Please tell us why_

_You had to hide away for SOOOOOO LONG!_

Someone softly said "Sooo long" for backing while I fell over and Lawrence, who was talking to the robot on wheels, facepalmed.

_WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?_

The song then ended and everyone, to Lawrence's surprise started clapping and Ertin told me that I was definitely getting into the semi-finals. I then fainted while getting off stage and tried to get waken up by Lawrence, but I wouldn't wake up.

I woke up, hung-over, and met the figure of a sweeper bot cleaning up trash and I looked around, and stood up and found it a hard time keeping balance. Lawrence and Vox were asleep on sofas while I saw Ertin in his striped pyjamas walking down the stairs with a cup of coffee.

"You're probably wondering what happened last night. Well, after you finished your fantastic performance you passed out from the alcohol and then the party finished after the karaoke contest (unfortunately you weren't able to perform again) and then everyone left, except for Lawrence and Vox, who insisted to stay here on the sofas until you woke up, and here we are."

While my head ached badly, I woke Lawrence and Vox and then, after Ertin offered us breakfast and a lunch meal for later, Lawrence and I followed Vox's spaceship to a desert planet where we entered a cloning facility and met the pink blob along with Drek, Otto and Tachyon (who grinned at me).

After the usual greeting and tour, I walked through the magnificent facility and saw Tachyon watching Drophyds being cloned out of a machine, so I walked up to him and talked to him. He asked me what I planned to do here at the VA, and I told him that I was going to take out Ratchet and Clank so they can't stop me from whatever dastardly plan I could think up of next.

He smiled at me and I smiled back, and he told me that my plan sounded the best, and then our moment was disrupted by Master speaking over the speakers to assemble in the meeting room. We were the closest and ran to our seats, and then a grate on the top of the ceiling opened and Otto dropped into his seat, Vox entered on a jetpack chair and Drek teleported to his. A cup on the table transformed into Master and slid to the giant emblem in the room and pulled down an interactive electronic board, and fiddled with it until a map of the Woldgon Galaxy appeared. He pressed on Dethrona and it zoomed in, telling us that this was our location and then he zoomed out and drew a line in red from Dethrona to Lomtaber, where Drek would disguise himself as a Lombax and lure Ratchet into space where they could divide and conquer his team and told everyone their positions. Otto would get miniaturized and be shot into Ratchet's ship, where would invade the comlink, making Ratchet get Clank shrink himself and fix it. Tachyon would invade the Apogee Space Station making Cronk and Zephyr contact Talwyn and then capture her. Drek would give chase to Ratchet and his friends after he lets them trick him into letting them escape and then let Qwark jump his ship and then land on Mukow, revealing his disguise and transforming into Giant Drek. Vox would then wait for Ratchet to return to Talwyn who he loves, and then ambush him. While Nefarious would stay and guard them while they get captured.

Master then changed the colour to green and drew a line from Dethrona to a green planet named Tanley, where he told them to go if they were ever defeated or lost, as this was the hideout where they would meet such defeated or lost person. Nefarious was ready to capture Ratchet and finally defeat him…

* * *

Sasha2 was pulled by the Scarzare's bodyguards into his personal throne room and she was dropped violently on the ground. The Scarzare told her that he knew that a mutation would turn against him one day, and then he approached her with a sword. She looked up and saw the blade diving down to stab her, and he rolled back and stole the bodyguard's two guns and shot them, and they fell to the ground dead.

Sasha2 pointed the gun at the Scarzare and told him to drop the sword. He complied with a smug look on his face, and then as she pressed the barrel against his face, he told her that if she killed him, Tachyon and Nefarious would be trapped forever. Her face sweated and her arm shook, but then she regained her senses, and pointed the gun down, shooting his foot.

While he squirmed and held his toe in acidic pain, Sasha2 grabbed his favourite girl and pointed the gun at her head at point-blank range. Once the Scarzare recovered, he noticed that Sasha was going to kill his favourite handmaidens that he loved so much if he didn't release Tachyon and Nefarious, so he limped over to the microphone and told the bodyguards to return to their original posts.

Sasha2 then pointed at the door controls and he reluctantly pressed a button and the doors at the intersection opened, surprising Tachyon and he woke Nefarious up again, and showed him that the doors were open. They heard running footsteps and thought it was going to be the bodyguards, but it was Sasha2, running around the corner to meet them. She threw Nefarious one of the bodyguard's guns and told them to follow her back through the door. She said (as they rounded the corner and into another intersection) that the bodyguards took her to the elevator at the left turn to the second floor and that they were in the basement at the moment.

They entered the elevator and she told them that they were going to go to the first floor and battle their way out, as the Scarzare would probably guard the entrance and try to kill her. The elevator stopped, and once they opened it, a whole squad of soldiers began firing at them, and they managed to press up against the sides before any of them were hurt.

Soon after being shook by the bolts hitting the back of the shaft, the door began to close again and quickly thinking, Nefarious took his helmet off and wedged it between the doors, preventing them from closing. Sasha2 then sidled to the opening and pointed her gun out shooting blindly at the squad of twelve troopers.

She stopped and quickly looked out, seeing three dead bodies on the floor, and then she reloaded the gun, and took a grenade from her belt and threw it to Tachyon's hands and told him to use it wisely. Nefarious ran to the right side, next to Tachyon, and saw a trooper sidling against the door, preparing to kill Sasha2, so he pointed the gun at him and shot him dead.

Tachyon got impatient and prepared to throw the grenade, but Sasha2 told him not to, because it was the only one they had and would probably need it for the entrance. Because she was on the left side of the elevator, she saw the security camera on the right side of the room and shot it, so the Scarzare wouldn't know what doors to lock. The first bolt missed and rebounded, hitting another soldier dead, but the second shot hit dead on.

Nefarious used Tachyon's lens to aim at 5 of the troopers and picked them all one by one, leaving two soldiers left which Sasha2 took out easily. One by one, they jumped out of the elevator, and Tachyon took a gun from a soldier, and they saw that the door on the right had closed and the door in front of them had nearly finished closing.

By the time they reached the door on the left, it had started closing and had to duck under it so they would get hit on their heads. They turned right through the hallway and then left and met three personal bodyguards, one in a turret, guarding a completely sealed entrance. Nefarious and Sasha2, ran back to the corner where they could still aim but not get hurt, while Tachyon dived into the closet and closed it.

He saw that the hallway was filled with closets separated by a barrier from the ceiling to a fairly large space between it and the ground, big enough for Tachyon to crawl under. He thought of a way to take them by surprise and crawled his way to the other side of the closets and pulled the pin, and opened the door of the closet, where he threw the grenade, which ricocheted off the closest bodyguards head and landed in the lap of the bodyguard on the turret.

Tachyon closed the door, and heard a scream, which caught Nefarious' and Sasha2's attention, and they poked their head around the corner and saw a bodyguard holding a grenade as it exploded, killing the three commanders. They wondered what happened until they saw the closet open and Tachyon exit, hopping in the turret and shooting the entrance open.

Nefarious and Sasha2 caught up with Tachyon and they exited together into heavy rain, and they walked over sticky moss to Sasha2's spaceship, and she offered them a ride. Tachyon told her to take them to Tanley, and she agreed, as she was going to pass by there to where she was going.

She turned on the engines and blasted off into the sky, and Nefarious and Tachyon looked back to see a chessboard-like building with many tunnels and intersections and there were turrets on top of it, which began to fire at the spaceship. They told Sasha2 and she pulled off and ring manoeuvre, and cleverly avoided the turret's fire long enough to escape the rainy planet. Tachyon asked Sasha2 what planet they just left, and she told them that it was planet Ordan.

* * *

Once they arrived at Tanley, they got Sasha2 to land the ship next to a trapezium-shaped base. The planet was covered in thick vines and grass, and this was evident, due to the hideout being decorated with vines, hugging the base. They let Sasha2 be free and do whatever she liked, and she gladly took off back into space.

She knew that if she was ever going to kill her father, she needed her counterpart's help…

Chapter 10 Preview

_Ratchet, Clank,__ and Tehctar watched as the damaged ship skimmed across the surface of the lava, before nose-diving suddenly and it started to sink into the boiling substance._

_Ratchet grabbed the Lavaboard and threw it on the lava, jumping onto it with a daredevil leap and rode as fast as he could towards the cockpit of the ship. Without looking, he opened the hatch and grabbed the figure inside it, carrying them back to land._

_The stopping of the Lavaboard jerked the figure out of Ratchet hand's and they fell on the ground hard. He heard a familiar voice yell at him, and turned around to met the former Mayor of Metropolis, Sasha Phyronix._


	10. A New Companion

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Ratchet learns that Tehctar is really a disguise, and if he shows his true form to him, bandits can track and kill him. And clone of the Galactic President, the Scarzare, tells Tehctar he has a 48-hour deadline to show his true identity or he will do it for him. They decide to prepare for a battle against the Scarzare so Tehctar will be safe, and they head to Mernasia where they find supplies. And with 45 hours to go, the race against time continues…_

_Chapter 10: A New Companion_

Tehctar had located an interactive electronic board which would allow him to tell everyone the detailed plan without being confused. It was being sold by another Vullard on a moon of Grokley named Lavarti, and apparently the Vullard's name was "S678A23R945A65" or "Sara" for short, and she sold all sorts of useful gadgets she picks up or buys.

Arv found out that his memory chip was still in place, because he remembered that Sara was his girlfriend on Rought, who ran away with another Vullard because she thought he was crazy for trying to go adventuring. He told Tehctar the story and he excitedly told Arv that this was his chance to win her back.

He said that in her profile, she broke up with a Vullard after he tried to kill a Battery Bot and then decided to open up a little shop somewhere he would never find her. Arv's emotional chip turned to "happy" and he excited wanted to go there. He fired up the engines and set the ship to auto-pilot, then walked into the dining room where he told them that they were approaching Lavarti.

They all said "okay", as they were busy. Ratchet was polishing his gun, while Talwyn was reading a magazine, and Clank was playing galactic chess with Qwark. Tehctar felt a little bored, so he thought of something to do, but couldn't think of anything. He then asked Ratchet if he wanted to train his hand-to-hand combat. Ratchet agreed, as long he could use his wrench and Tehctar could use whatever he wanted. He took off his coat, revealed a black T-shirt and purple shorts and then picked up a lead pipe and sparred with Ratchet.

Talwyn put down her magazine and watched Ratchet gaining Tehctar's upper hand, before he delivered a blow which disarmed Ratchet, and he chased him as he crawled on the ground the pick his wrench and blocked a blow to Ratchet's head. She told Clank this was getting a little brutal, and wondered what would happen if one of them was hurt, then they would never be able to defeat the Scarzare.

Tehctar turned to the offensive side and began swinging wildly at Ratchet before accidentally knocking the wrench up out of Ratchet's hands and bounced along the ground before falling in the open trapdoor (because Arv was doing some checking down there) and landed on Arv's head and ricocheted off into the boiler, where it melted to nothing.

Ratchet was extremely as he watched his treasured weapon fall to pieces, and now he would need another one, making their preparations even longer. Talwyn comforted Ratchet while Qwark and Clank said they were going to check if everything was alright in the cockpit.

Clank saw that a ship was tailing them, but just following instead of attacking. He told Tehctar and he guessed that it was working for the Scarzare and was tracking their movements, but Clank asked him what he would do if he attacked an innocent traveller. Tehctar agreed that it would be wrong, so he let the ship follow them, and see if tries to attack them once they get to Lavarti.

Arv came back out of the engine room and told Tehctar that he found a tub of red paint, which could be used to repaint Aphelion. He put on a spacesuit and began to climb up the ladder to Aphelion with the tub and began to paint it.

Ratchet sat on the couch with Talwyn and she asked him if he wanted to play a board game with Clank and Qwark. He needed something to cheer him up, so he agreed and Talwyn got Qwark and Clank and asked what board game they should play. Clank suggested they played Solanian Monopoly, and Ratchet said he's never played it, and was excited to start playing.

While Clank got the board ready, Tehctar heard a BING! BING! BING! repeatedly sounding throughout the Unipose again and jumped back down the tunnel, ran to cockpit and slowly put the ship a stop. He saw that the ship that was following them had stopped just behind them, like they were waiting.

Tehctar decided to finish painting Aphelion before going down to Lavarti. He told the others this, and they agreed and they went back to their game, where they chose their characters. Out of Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, Nefarious, Sasha and Lawrence, Ratchet, Clank and Qwark chose themselves, while Talwyn chose Lawrence for a laugh.

By the time Tehctar finished painting the Aphelion, Talwyn was winning, because she had a monopoly of two dark blues (Kerwan and Marcadia) with headquarters, and was stealing everyone's money. Ratchet was stuck with Zeldrin Starport, Blarg Technical Station, DreadZone Station and Holostar Studios, which only got his 2,000 bolts when someone else landed on any of them, and he had one yellow (Orxon) and one brown (Veldin) planet.

Qwark was following closely behind Talwyn with a monopoly of three greens (Pokitaru, Tyhrranosis and Aquatos) with two factories on each. Clank, however, was the worst player, because he had only one orange (Aridia), two yellows (Rilgar and Boltaire) and two blues (Metalis and Shaar).

Ratchet said that they should leave their game for when they get back, and now they had to decide who's going down to Lavarti. Talwyn and Qwark said that they wouldn't go, because they helped Ratchet on Mernasia. Tehctar and Clank volunteered to go and Tehctar told Ratchet that Arv is going too, because he knows the dealer down there.

Ratchet created a quiver and placed his "Modifigun" inside, and then equipped the Windy Barrier, just in case he needed it. Tehctar grabbed a water bag and stuffed it down the side of his shirt, and followed Ratchet, Clank and Arv, who had already started climbing. Tehctar threw his Communication Crystal down to Talwyn and told her to pull the red switch down when he gave her the command. She ran to the cockpit and sat in the seat waiting until they were ready.

* * *

Tehctar sat in the front with Ratchet while Clank and Arv sat in the back. Tehctar told Talwyn to release the claws as Ratchet's boosted up the engines. The claws loosened and Aphelion drifted upwards and rocketed towards Lavarti. Clank told Tehctar that the white ship was still following them, and Tehctar thought that if they looked like they were going to go to Grokley, and hid themselves behind the moon and land, it could throw them off the track.

Ratchet then aimed the ship towards Grokley, slowly moving out of the ship's sight behind Lavarti, and then made a 180° manouevre into the tiny atmosphere of the lava moon. They landed on the nearest piece of ground and Ratchet gave Tehctar an O2 Mask to breathe in, as they exited the ship and suddenly, sweat started dripping from Tehctar and Ratchet's skin.

They carefully waddled across the narrow path, separating them from life and death, as they grew tired from the heat and narrowness, and Ratchet's vision started to blur. He could see two paths, but then it changed to one path leading to a hunk of rock with a Vullard and a small building containing all sorts of junk.

Tehctar saw that Ratchet was losing his balance and Tehctar held him in place while Clank slapped some sense into him. Ratchet thanked them and managed to crawl to the smouldering rock, before being pulled back by Tehctar. He told him to look, and then Ratchet saw that part of the narrow path sank into the lava and there was a huge gap between them and the store.

The Vullard at the end turned away and grabbed four blue boards with lava trapped inside a lava-proof glass on the bottom. The boards were like hoverboards except these bent diagonally upwards at the ends. She tossed them together over to the heroes and Arv caught them and gave them to the others. After Tehctar studied the boards, he deduced that they could ride across to the other side on them.

Arv decided that he would be the guinea pig who would test it out and threw the board on the lava, and leaped onto it, and sank for a bit before rising up again and floating on the molten lava. He shifted his weight forward and the board responded, sliding along the lava at a fast speed until they moved to dry land. Tehctar, Clank and Ratchet followed him across.

Sara asked them what she could do for them, and asked if she had any interactive electronic boards, and she said that she had one left and was selling it for 500 bolts. They all forgot that they had no bolts left, and Tehctar only had a 100 he found on the wasteland. Sara told them not to worry, because there were many crates all over the moon that nobody had claimed, and she told them that they could take the bolts from them.

Ratchet asked her if she had a wrench he could borrow, and she said that a tall man in purple skin gave her an Omniwrench 20k the other day. He asked her what a Omniwrench 20k could do, and she said that it functioned like a normal wrench, except it had a kinetic tether and could function like a Swingshot. She told him he could keep it as he, Clank and Tehctar rode off on their Lavaboards smash the crates, but Arv was kept behind by Sara.

"I've waited for so long on this moon for you to come and return to me! I was stupid to think that you were crazy to go adventuring." Arv turned around to meet the eyes of Sara, who was dropping metal tears. "I didn't realise that the jerk I ran away with tried to kill an innocent Battery Bot!"

"Sara, why did you have to leave me? You would have been much better off travelling with me instead of staying on Rought with that jerkface?"

"I'M SORRY! I'M SO SO SORRY!" she cried. "I love you, Arv. Please forgive me!"

Arv leaned in and gave her a kiss, which created sparks and crackles flying out of their mouths.

"Will you come with me?" he asked.

"Will you stay with me?" she asked.

Arv decided that he would stay with Sara on Lavarti, and Tehctar will claim the Unipose as his own ship. He held Sara's hands as Tehctar came back carrying crates on his back and his belt showing that he had found 250 bolts. He threw the crates on the ground and the bolts rushed inside of his belt, changing the total to 300 bolts. Arv told him that he was staying and that the Unipose was his.

Tehctar was happy and sad at the same time, and wished that Arv could come with them, but told him that it was his life and hoped that he would be happy on Lavarti with Sara. He said that he guessed that Arv didn't need a new flight manouevrability chip anymore, which reminded Sara that she was going to give him one, just in case he ever needed it. She softly placed the chip in Tehctar's hands and he installed it in Arv as Ratchet and Clank rode back with a total of 1100 bolts altogether and Sara gave them the board, and then said that a Lavaboard was 100 bolts each, and so they spent their bolts on four of them, leaving 500 bolts. Tehctar told Ratchet that he could keep the rest of them for the armor and weapons he wanted.

Sara gave Ratchet and Tehctar some cooling packs to strap around their torso and legs and sent them on their way. Once Tehctar finished fixing Arv, he joined Ratchet, who gave him the board to carry, and they began walking back to Aphelion, and then Ratchet noticed that Arv wasn't with them, and Tehctar told him that he was staying with his girlfriend. He felt a little sad, but continued to walk back to Aphelion, which was in sight now.

Ratchet heard a falling sound, and told Clank and Tehctar about it. They looked around and Clank saw a white ship with smoke coming out of it's engine, floating towards the lava. Ratchet, Clank, and Tehctar watched as the damaged ship skimmed across the surface of the lava, before nose-diving suddenly and it started to sink into the boiling substance.

Ratchet grabbed the Lavaboard and threw it on the lava, jumping onto it with a daredevil leap and rode as fast as he could towards the cockpit of the ship. Without looking, he opened the hatch and grabbed the figure inside it, carrying them back to land.

The stopping of the Lavaboard jerked the figure out of Ratchet hand's and they fell on the ground hard. He heard a familiar voice yell at him, and turned around to met the former Mayor of Metropolis, Sasha Phyronix.

* * *

"SASHA?" exclaimed Ratchet. "What are you doing here?"

"I was following you," she responded in an angry tone. "Because my father was kidnapped by the VA and I heard you were fighting against them so I tried to find you and then meet you on the planet you were going too."

"Well, we though-"

"But then you tricked me into going to a planet filled with flesh-eating War Groks and I managed to escape in time, only to realise that there was a War Grok on the bottom of my ship and it tore a hole in my engine!"

Ratchet looked guilty, and then looked at Clank who looked at Tehctar who just said "Oops…". Ratchet asked Sasha if she wanted to join them and she agreed, as long as they don't trick her again. He told her that Tehctar is really a disguise because the clone of her father, nicknamed "the Scarzare", had helped a bunch of bandits track him, so he put on a Holo-Guise, and even if his real name is mentioned by him, then the bandits will be able to kill him easily, because they are overpowered.

Sasha got up and began to follow them to Aphelion, where Tehctar told Talwyn and Qwark that Arv was staying behind, and the former Mayor of Metropolis, Sasha Phyronix was joining them. They started up Aphelion and flew out of Lavarti as Arv and Sara watched, and then began to start their new life.

The claws on the top of the Unipose, grabbed the Aphelion, and Ratchet opened the hole in the floor, and ushered Sasha down first, before following her into the ship. Talwyn and Qwark greeted Sasha, and Talwyn asked her how she knew Ratchet. He heard this and walked away from them.

Sasha told her that she helped him defeat Dr. Nefarious when he tried to turn everyone into a robot, and that they "kinda sorta hadda" relationship. Talwyn kept a smile on her, and once Sasha was gone, it turned into a frown. Tehctar went to the cockpit to try and locate a place where they could upgrade the ships, while Ratchet, Talwyn, Clank and Qwark continued their Solanian Monopoly game.

30 minutes later, Qwark had taken the lead because manage to take all of Talwyn's bolts, so she had to downgrade her headquarters to factories. A rumbling sound shook the Unipose, tipping it to the left and sent Ratchet, Talwyn and Sasha into the wall, and tipped over their board game, while Qwark and Clank managed to hold on to their seats while Tehctar stabilised the ship and leveled it back.

"Are you okay," Ratchet asked to Talwyn and Sasha.

"Yeah," replied Sasha.

"No, I think I broke my leg," cried Talwyn.

Ratchet grabbed her arms and carried her to the nearby beds and laid her on one of them. He said he'd be back soon, and ran to the cockpit with Clank. He saw Tehctar standing up desperately trying to keep the ship in one piece, and he told them that they were being attack by two orange ships with wide wing spans.

Ratchet told him to keep the Unipose in place while he fights the ships with Aphelion. He ran back to the dining room and told Qwark and Sasha to help Talwyn while he and Clank go up into Aphelion. They climbed their way up and entered the ship, telling Tehctar through the Communication Crystal to loosen the claws.

He complied and Ratchet boosted the engines, and flew straight past the bandits and, according to Ratchet's plan, they followed him so the Unipose would be safe from any attacks. He lured them down to planet Grokley where many War Groks tried to grab the overpassing ships, and Snowball successfully grabbed one and pulled it apart.

However, the other ship was pulling off manouevres and made it impossible for the War Groks to grab it so Ratchet aimed away from all of them and hovered dangerous a few centimetres off the ground. The other ship followed him and they eventually flew into a rocky trench, which ended with a solid rock wall. Ratchet knew that Aphelion was blocking the ship's sight, so when they got close to the wall, he pulled Aphelion upwards and watched the fireworks as the ship crashed into the wall and smashed into pieces.

He landed the ship near the crash site, curious to find out who their enemy was. He ran over a rocky hill and saw an alien in orange uniform, laying in a pool of blood. Ratchet ran to the soldier's side and asked him who he worked for. His last words were "Scar…zare…" before his heart played it's last few beats.

Tehctar asked him what was going on through the Communication Crystal, and Ratchet told him that the Scarzare was attacking them now, probably to motivate Tehctar into showing his true identity. He then asked Tehctar if he could find anything like a cloaking device for a ship anywhere while they are coming back up, and he said he would.

Ratchet took off after a successful mission, and rejoined the Unipose. The first thing he did when he climbed back down was see how Talwyn was doing. She had a bandage around her right leg and was still laying, and was joyed to see Ratchet alive and well. He sat down next to her, and asked if she was okay, and she said that she was more than okay and kissed him passionately.

Disgusted by this, Sasha walked into the cockpit and sat on one of the seats, and Tehctar asked her if she was jealous about Talwyn getting all of Ratchet's care. She looked at him and gave him a stern no, but Tehctar knew she was lying because she was blushing. Sasha realised that he knew, and asked him if could find a cloaking device anywhere in the Woldgon Galaxy. He said he couldn't find anything at the moment but he knew that something would come up.

Qwark was disappointed that they never got to finish their game, but Clank remembered everything they were doing up to the point the board was tipped over. They both moved the board to the cockpit and set it up there as Ratchet and Talwyn needed privacy because they were getting really intimate.

Tehctar finally found a place where they could get a cloaking device, and called Ratchet on the Communication Crystal, and told him to come to the cockpit. Annoyed, he did so and asked him what he wanted. Tehctar said that to get a cloaking device, he'd need to win a melee contest on Aluyia.

Ratchet was extremely frustrated and asked Tehctar why he had to do everything, and everyone else just sat around doing nothing. Before anyone could respond, he pulled the switch that opened the claws and went up into the Aphelion alone, and left the Unipose. Qwark asked Tehctar what had gotten into him, and Clank said that he was probably upset because he killed a soldier who was working for an organisation, and that Ratchet probably had a change of heart, and thought that Tehctar was just using him.

Qwark and Sasha looked at Tehctar, and he said that he wasn't evil, and that his true identity was someone that Ratchet has known in the past. And to prove to them that he really wanted their help, he told them that he was going to enter the contest.

Now, they lost Ratchet and were skeptical if they were going to make it, because they only had **40 hours** remaining to defeat the Scarzare…

* * *

Ratchet grinded his teeth as he turned on the grav-o-metric warp drive and decided to go to the Bogon Galaxy to let his anger out. Aphelion shook as they warped, but Ratchet didn't care and came back to his senses when he warped right in front of an asteroid.

He rebounded off of it and desperately tried to hold it together enough so that they would be able to make it to Endako. He deployed his shield to maximum power as he entered the atmosphere of the metal planet and managed to softly land just outside of Clank's apartment. He sat on the couch with a sad look on his face and decided to watch some Holo-vision.

The first thing on HV was Darla Gratch reporting a news headline. "Today, in the Woldgon Galaxy, officials report that the capital of the galaxy, Mimbia, was under attack by Tyhrranoids. How they got to this galaxy is puzzling, however these Tyhrranoids may be native to an uncharted planet due to their different skin colour and scars on their right cheeks. This suggests that they are either of the same family or have been cloned. Any assistance by citizens of the Woldgon, Solana, Bogon, Polaris and other galaxies will be gratefully rewarded. This is Darla Gratch, Channel 64 news."

Ratchet didn't feel like helping, because nobody else does, but then thought about the reward, and how he would be able to get the armor from the Woldgon Galaxy. He ran to Holophone in the apartment, and dialed a number, and someone answered.

"Hello? Mr. Fizzwidget?"

Chapter 11 Preview

_Sasha__'s gun ran out of ammunition and three two-eyed Tyhrranoids approached her, all guns blazing. She ran away from them as they shot laser beams at her, destroying nearby rocks and other minerals. Her legs eventually grew tired, and she slowed to a stop and saw the Tyhrranoids advancing on her._

_One of the Two-Eyed Tyhrranoids __ fired a beam straight at her, but she was pulled away at the last second by a hand that had grabbed her from inside a spaceship, and she was pulled inside. Her body laid on a chair which had a familiar smoothness to it, and she opened her eyes and realised she was inside the Star Explorer._


	11. HalleAluyia

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Arv meets up with his long-lost girlfriend on Lavarti, and decides to stay there, and just after that Ratchet saves Sasha from drowning in the lava and she tells them that her father has been kidnapped by the VA and wanted Ratchet's help, so she joins them. Ratchet gets angry because he has to do everything while the rest of them do nothing, and leaves in Aphelion, and then sees a broadcast about Aluyia, the capital of the Woldgon Galaxy, being attacked by Tyhrranoids, obviously clones made from the VA because of the distinctive colour change and scars on their cheeks…_

_Chapter 11: Halle-Aluyia_

The Unipose continued it's trek in space towards Jungalia, a planet hosting an annual melee contest, with first prize a cloaking device, which would ensure a successful infiltration of the Scarzare's base, wherever it is. Ratchet had lost his temper and left them, but Tehctar had fortunately stepped in to take part in the battle.

Sasha walked into the dining room, where Tehctar and Qwark were drawing and Talwyn was crying into her pillow. She felt good that Talwyn had her heart broken, but not so good because it caused her a great deal of emotional damage. She wanted to comfort her, but also didn't want to at the same time.

She decided to sit down next to Tehctar and Qwark, and she asked Tehctar if he was scared about entering the contest.

"I am afraid," he said. "But, it's what I have to do."

"You sound just like Ratchet," said Sasha, who felt a little wooed. "I wish he was still here to help us."

"You know what we have to do, Sasha," said Tehctar.

"What?" she asked.

"Prove to Ratchet that he needs us. However, to get him back, I might have to fight him."

"Fight him?" yelled Sasha. Tehctar told her to shush, because Talwyn had just cried herself to sleep.

"Hopefully not, but it's a possibility. We need Ratchet back, and Aphelion too."

"I hope he's okay," said Sasha as she looked out the window. Tehctar smiled, because he knew that she loved him.

"Do you want to watch some Holo-vision?" he asked Sasha.

"Sure," she answered as they both sat back down on the right sofa, facing Qwark who was on the left. Tehctar grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, and saw that Annihilation Nation was just finishing, and Secret Agent Clank was on next.

"Clank!" yelled Tehctar. "You're about to be on TV!" Clank stopped reading the book about the Zoni and ran into the dining room, sitting next to Qwark. The credits for Annihilation Nation had just finished and they were going through commercials about hoverboards, Slim Cognito's illegal upgrades and the Mimbian Co. until Secret Agent Clank finally came.

_Clank was just a tiny robot living in a garage on Veldin with his butler, until one day, his skills were proven by the Agency, and he was hired to defeat evil and wear a cheap tuxedo. This was the beginning of Secret Agent Clank!_

"I've never watched this series before," said Sasha as the theme song played. "Is it any good?"

Clank gave her an angry look as Qwark said "Nefarious is his number one fan, so it must not be very good."

"I've never even heard of this show," said Tehctar, angering Clank more. "It must not have very good ratings."

Sasha saw that Clank's radiator core was puffing smoke, and she told him that she was looking forward to watching the episode, and Clank angry look turned to a neutral look. The theme song had finished playing, and suddenly it showed Clank beating up robotic ninjas in a dojo in slow-motion, which "Wowed" everyone watching.

Once the ninjas were defeated, Clank said one of his classic one-liners, "You must have not been trained well, "sensei" defeated you so easily."

All of the viewers laughed at the pun, and then started watching it again. Clank had exited the dojo and hopped back into his Agency ship, and Anastasia appeared on the screen, with a joyful but serious look.

"Congratulations, Agent Clank. You have successfully wiped out the last group of robot ninjas that work for Frushi, the land fish sensei."

"I know who he is, Anastasia."

"Oh my, of course!" She giggled before returning to her serious look. "Unfortunately, Frushi has escaped from the prison cell by eating our guards, and is now crawling through our hallways, and either avoiding the attacks we have at him or eating our agents before they can attack."

"I will be there as soon as I can!"

The Secret Agent Clank logo appeared, and an announcer stated "Secret Agent Clank will be right back after these messages." Clank was about to stand and get something to eat, when he noticed in the corner of his eye, Darla Gratch appeared on the HV on luscious planet filled with purple and green plants, amongst sandy grounds and rocky walls, like when he and Ratchet travelled to Ryllus during the mishap with Luna.

He sat back down as he saw Tyhrranoids (of different colour schemes to normal ones and scars on their right cheeks) running all over the place, either shooting at Mimbian soldiers in blue helmets (without lens) and wearing chainmail and leather chaps or running away from the soldiers.

The Mimbians were green aliens with oversized heads, big stomaches and tiny limbs. They had black eyes and sometimes fashioned a wig for style. Darla Gratch began to tell about the attack on Aluyia by Tyhrranoids, and how they might be of a specific pod or clones of each other.

Once the news report ended, Tehctar said that they were just near Aluyia, and that the contest would have to wait. He turned the Holo-vision off and walked to the cockpit, sat in the seat and turned the auto-pilot off. Aluyia was in the distance, and smoke could be seen in small bursts around the surface.

Qwark, Clank and Sasha ran into the cockpit, and saw Tehctar boost the engines to maximum and the Unipose flew towards Aluyia at a breakneck pace. Sasha and Clank held on to the readout boards as to prevent them from flying back into the wall, while Qwark was pulled back, but managed to grab onto the side of the door. All sorts of paper flew out of the door and drifted to the ground when Tehctar entered the atmosphere and slowed the engines.

Sasha walked over to Tehctar and said "We didn't actually agree but, really…I do." Qwark and Clank both agreed and took the four purple guns with "closed claws" at the end and a blue light, and gave one to everyone as Tehctar landed the Unipose on a giant tree trunk, away from all the battling.

"Are you all ready?" asked Sasha, cocking her gun. Everyone murmured affirmatively, and she opened the door of the ship, and got everyone to follow her while Talwyn stayed asleep…

* * *

Sasha, Clank, Qwark and Tehctar ran into the battlefield, and backed themselves up against a wall, shooting any Tyhrranoid that ran towards them. Clank climbed up to the small cliff above them and looked at their surroundings. He noticed that Four-Eyed Tyhrranoid Commanders were minimal, and only caught one moving into a cave, and not joining the battle at all.

While shooting One, Two and Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids, he told the others to climb up to the cliff, and Tehctar thought it was a great idea to have the high ground. They noticed that apart from the blue soldiers, there were yellow soldiers as well, and they looked like the ones in the Scarzare's base, except they were fighting against the Scarzare's forces.

And there were a few soldiers covered head to toe in red armor, with a variation of Razor Claws attached to their wrists, and sporting a red cape. They were leading yellow and blue soldiers and telling them combat strategies, so they were obviously the commanders of the Mimbian soldiers.

Tehctar wondered how come the VA's forces were attacking a planet when they destroyed their headquarters, and realised that there might be commanders for the remaining forces, in case they were killed. The skies were littered with spaceship fighting against Tyhrranoid saucers, but surprisingly no dropships were in the vicinity. A hemispherical blank crimson spaceship landed behind them, and a door slid from one side of the ship to the other and tiny brown aliens, coated with armor bearing alien symbols, exit the space the door was and laid down to the right of them to join the fight.

They spoke with really high-pitched voices and one (what seemed to be) female alien told them that they saw them laying here and thought it was a good spot to fight the Tyhrranoids. She told them that there were three of them, with her being Zok, her husband next to her being Mok, and their son next to them was Lok. Tehctar greeted them and hoped them the best during the battle. Their eyes were red with a think black outline, and they had huge feet twice as long as their stomachs. Their eyes were attached to just above the stomach and their arms were sticky, which got rid of the need for hands. A missile was shot from a Tyhrranoid saucer just before a spaceship blew the saucer up, and the missile headed towards the group of seven.

"DUCK!" yelled Tehctar as the missile passed just over their heads and hit the ground past the hemispherical ship. A woman screamed and Clank turned around, and saw a couple of Two-eyed Tyhrranoids chasing Darla Gratch and her cameraman. Clank grabbed the gun and pointed it at the Tyhrranoids, and fired twice and gaze in awe as the bolts hit the Tyhrranoids and they disintegrated into ash.

Darla walked over to Clank and thanked him for saving her. She motioned for her cameraman to move in front of her and he complied and gave her a microphone. She straightened her hair, and turned around and saw Clank staring at her, and she told her to keep battling, before the cameraman said that she was on.

"Hello, this Darla Gratch reporting live footage from the Invasion of Aluyia. So far, the battle seems to equal, as there are still too many Tyhrranoids to count. However, seven heroes have been tactically destroying the Tyhrranoids without a scratch, and have been saving many lives and are assets to ensure victory for the citizens of Aluyia." She moved to the seven heroes and got her microphone to point at them. "Their names are:" and as she moved the microphone along the line, everyone said their respective names. "Hopefully, these wild characters will be key in victory against the Tyhrranoids. This is Darla Gratch, Channel 64 news."

Sasha expected a commercial to come on, but realised that it was live and Darla Gratch was with them. Darla turned around and said "I hope you win the fight," before rushing off again with her cameraman. Sasha turned back around, but noticed that in the sky, about twenty saucers were forming together and launched a ton of missiles at the group.

"EVERYBODY JUMP!" she yelled as she slid down the wall of the cliff and everybody followed her, sliding down the side of the cliff, getting dirt on their bottoms before the missiles all hit the exact spot they were laying down at and would have obliterated them if Sasha hadn't seen them.

"Everyone, move to the cave on the other side of the battlefield!" yelled Tehctar, because he wanted to see what was going on in there, and why the Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids, as few as they were, were moving inside. They formed a circle and slowly moved in a group towards the cave, shooting any Tyhrranoids that came near. Soon, they started passing blue soldiers and then Lok saw a group of bare-chested men with bandanas around their heads and wearing jeans, and moved out of the group to ask them for help.

"NO!" yelled Zok, but Lok didn't listen and tugged on the men's jeans. They mistook him for a Tyhrranoid and shot him four times in the belly before he fell to the ground dead. Zok screamed in angst as her son's lifeless body became enveloped in a pool of blood. Her son's life was avenged though, because when the men realised what they had done to the poor alien, a quad of Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids shot them down too. Mok tried to stop Zok from running to her son, but he failed and she cried over his dead body as Two-Eyed Tyhrranoids aimed their guns at her and killed her as well. Mok began to weep for his family, but kept his common sense and stayed with the circle of five now.

The group finally got to the cave, but a group of fourteen Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids and six saucers were advancing on them, and they would be dead by the time they squeezed through the narrow entrance.

"I have nothing to live for," solemnly said Mok. "I will distract them while you get into the cave. Never mind me, this is for you. I will be forgotten like the rest of my family." Sasha began to cry, but Mok yelling for them to go, snapped her back to her senses and she began to follow Tehctar, Qwark and Clank through the small crevice, and turned back to see Mok shooting as fast and as accurate as he could, but he was eventually shot down, just as Sasha safely made inside.

"Follow me," whispered Tehctar as he started to slowly walk through the bluish cave. It angled right and then took a sharp turn to the right, revealing a green raised platform with a circle of Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids, hands joined and eyes closed.

Tehctar heard a beautiful singing voice and asked the others they could hear, but alas, they couldn't. He suddenly fell under a spell from the song and started to move blindly towards the group against the other's protests, and they opened their eyes and moved around so that Tehctar could sit among them, and he joined his hands with them, and closed his eyes, just like the Tyhrranoids.

_Join our song._

Everyone had just heard a telepathic voices in their head, telling them to join them in unison. Sasha wondered if they were actually friendly, and then heard the beautiful singing inside her head, and was drawn to them as well, and sat down cross-legged and joined hands with Tehctar and a Tyhrranoid.

_Two of you have not yet considered us to be friendly, but if you do, you will join our Song of Betrayal._

"BETRAYAL?" asked Clank wildly.

_Join our song and learn the truth, just like your friends are doing now._

Clank thought that if they were friendly, how come the Tyhrranoids are attacking the planet. "_They could have been betrayed by their-"_

Clank's thoughts were disrupted by the fact he had considered the Tyhrranoids to be friendly and was now forcibly walking to the group, and joined their song. Qwark just gave up and walked towards the Tyhrranoids casually, but was blocked by an invisible forcefield.

_You must consider us to be on your side._

Qwark considered it for just a second and he was trapped in the spell as well, and finally completed the circle. The Tyhrranoids all squinted and transmitted their memories into Sasha, Tehctar, Clank and Qwark's head, and they all saw flashes of past events.

_The VA__ sends the Tyhrranoid pod (or Tyhrrapod) on a rocket._

_The rocket crashes into a mountain on Aluyia._

_The surviving Tyhrranoids name the Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids their rulers._

_The Tyhrranoids live in the cave for days, and breed enough for an army._

_Too many Tyhrranoids and too little space in the cave cause the Tyhrranoids to complain._

_The rulers have no choice but to kill some of the young Tyhrranoids to stop them from over-populating._

_The rest of the Tyhrranoids disagree and betray them by starting to kill everyone on the planet and claim it their own._

_The rulers have no control over their people and would be easily defeated if they tried to disrupt their reign._

_The best the rulers could do, would be sing to draw people to the planet to get the galaxy's attention and save the planet._

Tehctar, Sasha, Clank and Qwark open their eyes at the same time, and let go of each other's hands. Sasha looked at the others and they nodded, so they got up and began to walk away.

_Why aren't you helping us?_

Sasha turned around and said "It's because you tried to kill your people that your underlings are betraying you, and they have every right to try make more space. However, they are going to either relocate or die at the hands of us." The Tyhrranoids looked at them and their eyes suddenly turned red.

"I don't like the looks of this!" yelled Tehctar and they all ran once the Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids began to float and charge up a laser beam. They all squeezed through the crevice, and Qwark got his butt burned as he was last one to squeeze through. Tehctar, Clank and Qwark began to run to the ship, shooting Tyhrranoids as they did, but Sasha stopped and saw Mok's carcass next to her, and she started crying again.

Tehctar turned around and saw Three-Eyed Tyhrranoids advancing on Sasha, who was weeping next to Mok, and told her to run, and she came back to her senses and realised that Tyhrranoids were coming towards her. She saw an escape route to the left and yelled out to Tehctar to never mind her, and she ran through the battlefield, shooting all the One and Two-Eyed Tyhrranoids trying to get close to her as more Three-Eyed ones join the group chasing her. She thought she going to run out of space to run, but saw a trench to the left of her, and unexpectedly jumped to the left and through the tunnel.

She began to walk slowly back, in case she ran out of space to back up, and fired her guns at all the advancing Tyhrranoids. Sasha's gun ran out of ammunition and Three Two-Eyed Tyhrranoids approached her, all guns blazing. She ran away from them as they shot laser beams at her, destroying nearby rocks and other minerals. Her legs eventually grew tired, and she slowed to a stop and saw the Tyhrranoids advancing on her.

One of the Two-Eyed Tyhrranoids fired a beam straight at her, but she was pulled away at the last second by a hand that had grabbed her from inside a spaceship, and she was pulled inside. Her body laid on a chair which had a familiar smoothness to it, and she opened her eyes and realised she was inside the Star Explorer.

* * *

Sasha's eyes were fuzzy, and she looked up and saw a yellow figure piloting the Star Explorer, and then she rubbed her eyes and looked back to see Ratchet.

"Ratchet, why did you run away?" asked Sasha, with a sad look on her face.

Sighing, Ratchet said "It's because I thought that everyone was just using me like I was a tool, and that they were just getting out the easy way, but then I realised that they wanted to help too when I saw you and the others fighting for your lives on Aluyia."

"So, are you coming back?" asked Sasha.

"No," answered Ratchet. "Not yet. Not until I've repaired the Aphelion."

"What happened to it?" asked Sasha.

"Well," told Ratchet. "I warped to the Bogon Galaxy to let out my anger and accidentally hit an asteroid. I managed to land it on Megapolis and asked Fizzwidget, the owner of Megacorp-You remember him, right? Yeah, I asked him if I could borrow the Star Explorer and he let me use it. I saw the news program and travelled to Aluyia to help fight in the sky and then…well…you know the rest."

"So," said Sasha. "Does that mean we will have to stay on Megapolis until you've finished repairing Aphelion?"

"Yep," said Ratchet.

The Star Explorer warped to Bogon and landed at Clank's apartment. Ratchet ushered Sasha out and they entered the apartment together. It was nighttime on Endako and Sasha said that she was going to take a shower. Ratchet understood and showed her where it was. She closed the door and Ratchet walked out of the apartment and sat on the edge of the building, watching the annual "Endako, Capital" fireworks display being shot up from on top the large building in the middle of the city.

Ratchet watched it for so long, he didn't notice that Sasha had gotten out of shower and was now wearing a pink tank top and light pink boxer shorts. She sat down next to him, watching the fireworks.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" asked Sasha.

"Ummm, what's beautiful?" asked Ratchet, obviously flustered.

"The fireworks. They are one of the few things in the universe that stay beautiful, no matter what happens. Just like someone I know."

"W-Who's that?" asked Ratchet.

"You," she commented, making Ratchet blush. "You've saved 3 galaxies many times, and no matter what happened you kept going. I hope it stays the same this time." She got up off the ground and began walking back into the apartment, pouring herself a drink.

Ratchet thought that Sasha was beautiful, however, he was already in a relationship with Talwyn, but he thought that even though Talwyn looked pretty, Ratchet didn't like her personality much. Sasha, on the other hand, was beautiful and had known Ratchet for much longer, and her personality was kind, but stern as well.

He then realised that he had to choose between girls, the most horrible thing that could happen to a man. Talwyn was beautiful and always cared for Ratchet, and helped him wherever he went, but Sasha was even prettier than Talwyn and her personality was great, and she had open feelings for Ratchet.

Sasha sat back down next to Ratchet with a healthy drink, and looked at him, noticing he was choosing between either Talwyn or Sasha.

"So, what are you thinking about?" asked Sasha, obviously knowing the truth. "What? About Aphelion, the battle on Aluyia, the Scarzare?"

Ratchet didn't answer her and turned his away from her, and then Sasha's smile turned into frown, when she realised that he had made his decision. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and felt the touch of Lombax lips on her mouth. Sasha opened her eyes and only saw Ratchet's closed eyes, and after being flabbergasted at what was happening, pulled him closer into a deep passionate kiss. Ratchet laughed in Sasha's mouth and had to break away to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry…about that," said Sasha apologetically.

"No," said Ratchet, catching his breath. "It's okay. It's more than okay. It's freaking fantastic!"

Sasha laughed with Ratchet, and told him that she was disappointed when she saw Talwyn on the ship and him kissing her.

"Really, Sasha," said Ratchet. "I think that what I was doing with Talwyn was just to make up for the fact that I had no girl to love and care for, and I was glad when you came onboard."

Sasha started to cry, and Ratchet gently comforted her, and asked her what he could do for her, and then she let go of Ratchet and told him to come with her. She grabbed his hand and pulled through the apartment and into the bedroom, as they were about to fireworks of their own inside…and with **26 hours** remaining after they wake up, Tehctar, Talwyn, Clank and Qwark were busy participating in the contest during the time Ratchet and Sasha were expressing their passion in the bedroom.

Chapter 12 Preview

"_Congratulations to these lucky contestants, who get to face off in the semi-finals of the Melee Fighting Contest!" The crowd cheered as the announcer read out the numbers on the shirts of the lucky contestants picked by the judges when they faced off. Only 8 contestants could continue to the final face-off, and out of the 138 contestants, 19 remained on the battlefield, while the rest were either knocked out or knocked off._

"_56, 29, 138__, 67, 103, 81, 64 and 137!" Tehctar looked down at his shirt and saw the number 137 upside-down. He realised he performed well and made it through to the next round, and he raised his fists in the air as the drawbridge lowered down onto the field and the losers trudged off unhappily."_


	12. The Heated Up Heats

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_On the way to Jungalia to participate in a melee competition, Tehctar, Sasha, Clank and Qwark discover that the capital of the Woldgon Galaxy, Aluyia, is under attack by cloned Tyhrranoids. After __participating in battle, they discover a cave where the Four-Eyed Tyhrranoid rulers reside. They learn that they were sent to a planet on a rocket by a VA but crashed created a colony inside a cave. When there was too little space, the rulers tried killing some of the offspring, but were betrayed by their citizens. The group decide not to help the rulers and a chase ensues. Sasha is separated from the group and is saved by Ratchet. On Endako, they expressed their love for each other and wind up in the bedroom…_

_Chapter 12: __The Heated Up Heats_

"Quick, lets get out of here!" yelled Qwark as Tehctar ran into the pilot's seat and fired up the engines. They had all seemingly forgotten about Zok, Mok and Lok and their unfortunate deaths.

"Wait!" yelled Clank. "What about Sasha?"

"Ummmm," said Tehctar as the Unipose lifted off the ground. "We'll search from the sky!" Tehctar pilot the Unipose down to be leveled, and then avoided the oncoming saucer fire as Qwark and Clank looked at the ground to see if Sasha was anywhere. They passed through the trench where Sasha ran, but couldn't find her anywhere.

Clank noticed a familiar ship to the right of them and told Qwark that the ship was Ratchet's old Star Explorer, and Qwark ran to right side and managed to Sasha inside. Tehctar pulled the Unipose upwards and followed the Star Explorer as it left the atmosphere. They rocketed through space and was gaining on the ship, until a purple and black light enveloped the ship and disappeared.

"DARN!" yelled Tehctar. "They've warped somewhere!"

"If Ratchet really cared about Sasha, then he will bring her back soon," stated Clank. "Let Sasha go for awhile, he'll bring her back sooner or later."

Tehctar sighed, and then turned the Unipose to the left, and continued flying towards Jungalia, where Tehctar would participate in the Jungalian Melee Competition, where first prize was a cloaking device which would ensure a successful infiltration of the Scarzare's base, wherever it was. This contest would have to be the last thing they do before they rest up for the second day.

Tehctar noticed that Qwark and Clank had moved to the dining room, and he set the Unipose to autopilot, curious as to what they were doing. He entered the room and saw Clank telling a now-awake Talwyn what had happened on Aluyia. Qwark was sitting at the dining table, sadly reading a comic book, and Tehctar had hoped that the Battle for Aluyia was won.

He went back to the cockpit and decided to look up the rules for the contest, and found an instruction book for contestants posted online.

_The contest starts with the tradition opening ceremony__ with the raising of the battlefield, a hexagonal platform with a circular base cushioning anyone that falls off. The contestants line themselves up on the platform, before fighting bare-handed for five minutes, and anyone that doesn't get knocked off the platform or knocked out will be decided by the judges if they fought well enough to pass to the semi-finals._

_Once eight contestants are chosen, they each grab one of the eight ropes leading to under a blanket, and the blanket is pulled away, the contestant tug on the rope and whichever two contestants are holding the ends of the same rope have to fight for a spot in the finals._

_Once four people pass to the finals, they are awarded 5,000 bolts each and then placed in the nearest jungle and must fight for survival, and can use anything they find as a weapon. The last two contestants standing head to the grand final, where they fight until someone gets knocked out, declaring the last man standing the winner of the JMC and the grand prize for that year._

Tehctar looked up from the rulebook and saw Jungalia approaching in the distance.

"What time does the competition start?" said Clank, who had just entered the room.

"5:21," answered Tehctar. "Why?"

"The signing up ends at 5:30," Clank said as Tehctar yelled and turned up the engines to full boar. In Clank's optical sensors, the planet of Jungalia moved closer like a giant shark, until covered all the windows and then fire enveloped the Unipose as it entered the atmosphere, and then died down once they had gotten through.

Qwark had entered the cockpit too and saw many people at the entrance of what looked like a giant silo. They were chatting and a few were signing up for the competition. Tehctar landed the ship next to a group of others and ran out towards the booth, and immediately asked if it was too late.

"Well," said the person at the booth. "It's 5:27 and participation ends at 5:30, so you're in!" Tehctar raised his fists into the air with joy.

* * *

"Here's your number." The booth attendant tossed him a sports bib with the number 137 on the front, and he stared at it for a while, before noticing an anxious yellow alien with big ears waiting to sign up. To make sure he didn't miss out, Tehctar kindly stepped away and let the alien sign up.

Tehctar ran back to the Unipose, where Qwark and Clank were waiting on the steps, and he told them that he made it in. They celebration was short-lived, though as an announcer spoke out on the speaker phones.

"All contestants walk into the preparation rooms on the left and right sides of the entrance. All spectators, walk up the four stairs beside the preparation rooms." Qwark and Clank unexcitedly began climbing up the stairway with a bunch of other aliens wanting to see the fight while Tehctar entered the preparation room. They walked up slowly while others rushed to get a good seat, but the staircase wasn't long as it only twisted back and then back again into the crowd.

The "silo" was actually an arena filled with lava, and the spectator's seat were much higher up from where the lava ended. Many people where climbing out of the staircases and running around the edge of the arena to find their seats. Clank noticed that to the right of them was the entrance to the arena, blocked by a metal lava-resistant drawbridge.

Tehctar walked downstairs through one of the two narrow staircases into a room with over 100 lockers. It didn't matter which entrance the contestants took, both of them led to the same locker room. The booth attendant was down there and gave everyone who came in a sticker with their number on it, and told them to put the sticker on any locker without one. He placed his sticker on a locker next to number 64, who turned out to be an alien with a bear head, and rough hairy body with abs, wearing suspenders with jeans as pants, and having no shoes on at all.

"Hey, look at this little runt," said number 64 to his friends, 50 and 81, pointing at Tehctar and laughing. Tehctar looked at them with an angry look.

"I'll take this guy out first as a warm-up!" he said, causing his friends to laugh even more. Tehctar took off his jacket as number 64 approached him, so he opened the locker in his face, and his friends stopped laughing as Tehctar place his jacket inside. Tehctar walked away, hoping not to cause any trouble, but was stopped by number 64.

"HEY!" he yelled. "I'm not able to fight you now, but when we enter the arena, you'll wish you entered the competition. Remember the name, it's Yuni." Yuni walked away as the booth attendant announced that there was five minutes until the opening ceremony, and to prepare themselves for the fight.

While most of the contestants flexed themselves and warmed up, the attendant approached Tehctar with the same yellow alien from earlier, and said to him that there weren't enough lockers for everyone, as there were 135 when 138 people entered, more than any JMC before. He then got to the point and asked Tehctar if he'd share his locker with the young alien boy, and agreed, as they were both young and would get along well together.

"So, what's your name?" asked Tehctar, as the alien boy opened the locker and put his drink and food inside.

"My name is Tyuio," said the alien boy. "I was the last contestant to join, just after you, remember?"

"Yeah, I do. But being the last contestant probably means you'll be the last one standing, huh?"

"Nah," said Tyuio. "I think Yuni over there will win, because he's big and brawny."

"Well, he doesn't have much brains and a balance of brain and brawn is an ensured win, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but that means you'll win."

"You really think so?" asked Tehctar, and Tyuio nodded. "So, why did you join the competition?"

"I joined so I could get 5,000 bolts for my family. My father couldn't do it, because his leg is injured, and my mother couldn't do it since she is pregnant, and my baby sister couldn't because…she's a baby. And because our family is in poverty, I decided to enter the competition to get some money. I don't need the cloaking device, because all we need is the money."

"Well," said Tehctar. "I joined because an evil clone is giving me a deadline to reveal my true identity, but if I do then I'll be killed by bandits, so we're preparing to storm his base and defeat him, so the bandits have no clue where I am. And the cloaking device is the best thing possible to use to infiltrate the base."

"Wow," said Tyuio. "That's some pretty heavy stuff right there."

"Attention all contestants. Please move to the battlefield for the opening ceremony," announced a person over the speaker. Tehctar and Tyuio began to follow the contestants going through the giant door in the middle of the room and over bridge to a chrome, hexagonal platform, and they were shifted into their positions for the ceremony. While crossing the bridge, Yuni walked fast to catch up to Tehctar and poked him in the back, which caught his attention and he grinned viciously at him before walking off.

The booth attendant positioned everyone in a hexagonal pattern, with 3 layer getting smaller as they got closer to the center. Tehctar looked up and thought he was dreaming. There was a thin sheet of lava floating above them, covering them so it would make the opening ceremony even more spectacular. He was situated on the biggest hexagon right near the edge, and Tyuio was beside, and not directly opposite him was Yuni, looking at him grievously.

Tehctar looked behind him and saw a circular base around the bottom of the hexagonal pillar. Suddenly, the platform rocked and started to slowly move upwards towards the lava sheet.

* * *

As the hexagonal platform rose up towards the sheet of lava floating in the air, the middle of the lava began to dissipate creating a hole for the platform to shoot up through. The rest of the lava dissipated as well when the circular base rose up with it. The crowd started cheering when they saw the contestants neatly positioned in a beautiful pattern, and workers on the circular base launched fireworks in the air, wowing the crowd to an extreme level.

A spotlight shined on Tehctar, and then multiple spotlights began to shine on other contestants until everyone was covered in one. The fireworks displayed logos of sponsors, generic stars and lastly a giant firework displaying:

**JMC**

Jungalian Melee Contest

A floating pedestal with a blue humanoid in a tuxedo with a deep voice standing on it floated it's way in front of the battlefield. The announcer had a microphone and was ready to give the opening words.

"Welcome to this year's Jungalian Melee Contest. This year we have 138 contestants, more than any of the 256 annual competitions before us! I'm sure all of the contestants are familiar with the rules, but some of you in the audience might not know so I'll tell you."

The judges were seated in a rectangular booth behind the audience, with one being a tall pink male alien with three tendrils shooting out each of his cheeks. The one in the middle was an adult female Cazar, who acted a little sexual to the other judges. The third judge was a fat sickly green humanoid, with a chubby head, and always had a supply of food next to him to eat.

"The contestants fight for 5 minutes straight, and anyone who is knocked out or falls off the battlefield will be eliminated. Eight of the remaining contestants on the platform will be chosen by the judges for their skill, speed, strategy and strength to pass to the round. Contestants, get ready to fight when you hear the bell!"

The announcer floated back into the crowd, as the contestants all tensed themselves, with Tehctar and Yuni eying each other off until the bell rang. Yuni and Tehctar ran for each other, but Tehctar stopped as Yuni ran straight into two contestants grappling, knocking them out but giving Tehctar enough time to disappear from Yuni's sight.

Contestant after contestant either fell off the field or was knocked out, leaving around fifty men standing. Tehctar noticed Tyuio jumping all around this one contestant near the edge of the platform, and after careful watching, grabbed his big yellow ears and began to spin around, building up energy to throw him off the edge.

Tehctar ran for him, but his arms were pulled back by Yuni, who had found him in the crowd. He brought his giant fist up and narrowly missed Tehctar who had fallen on the ground and rolled out of the way just in time, kicking his crotch in the process. He got up and ran towards the contestant who had just thrown Tyuio off, and he pushed him down onto the ground and watched as Tyuio fell while Tehctar tried to reach him.

Tyuio grabbed his ears and flapped them, pushing himself up enough to grab Tehctar's and get pulled up.

"For your family," said Tehctar before running off to fight again. Two women in tight spandex charged from sides and tried to tackle him, but at the last second, Tehctar duck and the women tackled each other and collapsed from the fright. As soon as he got up, another contestant tried charge at him, but Tehctar ducked again and tripped him over, before Tyuio grabbed his head and threw him off the platform.

Tehctar saw Yuni slowly pull himself up after being kicked in the stomach and was holding it in pain. Tehctar jumped over the bodies of the contestants that knocked out and picked Yuni up with one hand, and walked to the edge of the arena holding him by the chin over the edge and was about to drop him when Yuni kicked him back, and doing so caused him to hang over the edge, grabbing on by his fingertips.

Tehctar poised himself upright and stood up, walking to the edge and looking down, seeing Yuni's desperate black eyes. He lifted his foot and after a count to three, slammed it down on Yuni's weak fingers, but was taken aback when his foot was lifted off Yuni's hands using the brute force in his fingertips to push Tehctar back, and pulled himself up, back onto the arena.

Yuni approached Tehctar, who was slowly trying to crawl away from the giant brute, and squinted his eyes, waiting for the inevitable before being tackled by another contestant. While they quarrelled, Tehctar looked for a new target to take out, and decided to help Tyuio double-team a giant power-house.

Tyuio was punching and kicking his head to prevent his brain from focusing while Tehctar was weakening him by taking out his chest. Another contestant who had just punched his rival off the edge decided to help them take him out, by trying to push him off the edge, but his feet kept sticking in place.

Tehctar grew tired and stomped the ground in frustration, but accidentally stomped the power-house's foot allowing the contestant to push him off, before being pushed off as well by Yuni, who had defeated the person who tackled him. Tyuio wrapped himself around Yuni's head trying to blind him while Tehctar delivered punches and kicks at his stomach.

Yuni managed to shake Tyuio off of him and punched Tehctar in the eye, blowing him down to the ground. Tehctar reached out, dazed and confused, and was pulled up by Yuni who punched him twice again in the stomach, making the crowd cheer in excitement, except for Qwark and Clank who were crossing their fingers that Tehctar comes back.

Tehctar was pulled back up again, but managed to block Yuni's punch and push the force back at him, making him stumble as Tehctar tackled him to the ground. The crowd was surprised at this comeback and cheered for him. Yuni managed to throw Tehctar off, and they both stood back up at the same time.

Tehctar and Yuni strategically blocked each other punches while trying to get a good hit in, but neither were successful. Tyuio decided to try distract Yuni but was stopped by a contestant who punched Tyuio to the ground. Yuni tried to deliver an uppercut, but Tehctar managed to dodge it at the last second by jumping to the right and gave Yuni a right hook, smashing one of his teeth out.

The crowd oohed and aahed as Yuni jabbed Tehctar, and then pulled him around so that he was near the edge, and prepared to finish him off. The bell sounded again just before Yuni gave Tehctar an uppercut, making him lose his sense of balance and fall off the hexagonal platform. Clank wondered if Tehctar had lost, but then the announcer yelling to some workers to bring him back to the platform, and two employees floated down to Tehctar, who was knocked out cold, and got him to wake up, before bringing him back up to the platform.

"You may have seen this contestant, Number 137, get knocked off the edge," said the announcer, who was floating back to the platform. "However, just before the punch landed the bell rang, meaning that 137 was still standing when the round ended, so he will be considered by the judges as well." Clank and Qwark clapped enthusiastically, and watched as the judges murmured between themselves, point to different contestants as the announcer floated inside and the left-hand judge gave him a sheet with the numbers of the contestants who made it past to the next round.

"Congratulations to these lucky contestants, who get to face off in the semi-finals of the Melee Fighting Contest!" The crowd cheered as the announcer read out the numbers on the shirts of the lucky contestants picked by the judges when they faced off. Only 8 contestants could continue to the final face-off, and out of the 138 contestants, 19 remained on the battlefield, while the rest were either knocked out or knocked off.

"56, 29, 138, 67, 103, 81, 64 and 137!" Tehctar looked down at his shirt and saw the number 137 upside-down. He realised he performed well and made it through to the next round, and he raised his fists in the air as the drawbridge lowered down onto the field and the losers trudged off out of the arena unhappily.

* * *

While those who didn't make it to the next round had their wounds treated and were sent off, the eight contestants that made it were specially treated in the locker by an expert and were then ushered into a hidden door where there were eight waiters and waitresses and eight tables, ready for each of the contestants.

56 was a Novalian bodybuilder who's main tactic was to trick his opponent into running off the edge, and not fighting to converse strength. 29 was a tiny skinny alien with two antennas for ears, who's main tactic was to jump around opponent to confuse them and then deliver a hard blow. 67 was a pinkish alien who had an extremely small head, but an inflated stomach, allowing him to bounce around the arena and cushion any falls, and his main tactic was to squash his enemies. 103 was a black shadowy figure, who had no appearance at all except for a humanoid figure, and his main battle tactic was to hide in the shadows and surprise his enemies. 81 was one of Yuni's best friends, and had a bear head too, except he was smaller than Yuni, and his main tactic was to crush his enemies to pieces.

Tehctar had a beautiful Markazian waitress with blonde hair serve him, and she asked him what he wanted for dinner. He asked her politely for five Grugan cupcakes, some Hyunalia and three Swendas. She left to the kitchen, and then walked back out and presented him with a fork, a knife and a napkin.

"Do you want some water with that order?" she asked.

"Sure," said Tehctar, before the girl grabbed a jug of water and poured it into a glass. She smiled at him and walked off, telling him that if he ever needed her, to just call her. Tyuio was sitting at the table behind him, and decided to talk to Tehctar while they waited. He got up from his seat and waddled over to Tehctar, grabbing his attention.

"Thank you for saving my behind today," said Tyuio. "You were the one that got me to the next round."

"No need to thank me," said Tehctar. "You got me into the next round as well."

"But that was after you had saved me, allowing me to save you, so you saved yourself."

"I guess," said Tehctar, taking a sip from his drink. He sighed, and then wondered what Qwark and Clank were doing. He thought that they probably knew that he'd be getting treatment and some dinner, so they probably went back to the Unipose.

He saw the Markazian girl coming out with a plate, and Tyuio went back to his seat, to wait for his food. The girl placed the tray in front of Tehctar, and then left for the kitchen again. The tray contained five little green cupcakes that Arv used to make on the Unipose, called Grugan cupcakes (or just Grugans). Hyunalia was a type of shredded pastry that was very light on the stomach, but provided a great taste, while Swendas were brown drumsticks that tasted chocolaty and came from the legs of a Swenda Beast.

Tehctar started enjoying his meal by spread some Hyunalia on his Swendas and munching into them graciously, while Yuni regularly eyed him off as he was eating his meal. Soon, everyone had been given their meal and were eating like crazy, especially Tyuio because he had eaten much at home because of his family's poverty. Once Tehctar had finished his meal, his waitress approached him and asked if he wanted anything else.

"No thanks," said Tehctar, wiping his mouth. "I've already had too much than I should have." He got up from his seat holding his full stomach, and was then approached by the booth attendant.

"You may leave the complex if you'd like, but make sure you don't leave the planet, or you'll be disqualified from the competition," he said. "You fought very well today, and I'd hate to lose you."

"Thanks," said Tehctar. "I've got some friends who watched the match today and they're probably wondering where I am." He walked out of the room and through the preparation room, and headed up the staircase, and opened it, noticing it locked from the inside, probably to keep fans from getting inside. He locked it before leaving, and then an arena guard recognised him as a finalist and gave him temporary keys to get back in.

He began to walk back to the ship, but then a group mumbling, saying "it's him" and "he's so kind" and other phrases, and turned to see a group of yellow big-eared aliens chattering to each other, before running up to him. They all thanked him for keeping Tyuio safe, and the female one kissed him on the cheek four times.

"Ummm, Ahhhhh," stuttered Tehctar. "So, you must be Tyuio's family and friends." The all nodded, and the tiniest one walked up to him, and hug his leg. The female one ran to her and picked her up.

"This is Tyuio's little sister, Myha," said the mother.

"Well, it's great to meet to you all," stammered Tehctar. "Is there anything I can do for you." The father approached and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Promise me you'll protect Tyuio enough that he'll be able to get the 5,000 bolts to help us all."

"I will," pledged Tehctar. "I will because he deserves it. While all the other contestants entered to show off their muscles and beat him guys, Tyuio is in it because he wants to risk his life to keep his family from starving. He deserves the grand prize more than anyone."

"Oh, Tyuio doesn't want to go to the grand final, but because the crowd usually stampedes those who deliberately lose and not put up a good fight, Tyuio was looking for someone who would pretend to fight him in the survival arena and then pretend that he gets knocked out," said the father.

"I'll do it for him," promised Tehctar, who then noticed Tyuio exiting the preparation room and running towards them.

"Hey, Tehctar, I see you met my family," said Tyuio who was still running towards them.

"Yeah," said Tehctar. "They told me that you were looking for someone to pretend to fight with in the survival round."

"Yes, once I became friends with you after talking in the preparation room, I decided to help you both as a good friend and to get you to the survival round."

"I was afraid," said Tyuio's mother. "I was afraid that you wouldn't make it in the top eight, but I'm so glad you did."

"I guessed the judges thought that you worked so well together that it would make the crowd wild to see you facing each other if you got to the survival round," laughed his father.

"Hey, mom," said Tyuio.

"Yes, sweetie?" asked his mother.

"They gave us a free dinner and my belly has been filled so much!" exclaimed Tyuio.

"Awwww, that's great," said his mother, a little disappointed that she didn't have anything to eat. Tehctar saw the mixed expressions on her face, and felt bad that they were in poverty.

"Hey!" yelled Tehctar. "Why don't you come inside my spaceship and have dinner with my friends? It's free of charge and let's think of it as a celebration for Tyuio and I getting through to the next round."

"Ohhhh," said the father. "We don't want to bother by having you give us dinner."

"Don't be silly!" exclaimed Tehctar. "My stomach already hurts from too much food. Why don't you join me in my pain?" Tyuio's friends laughed, and then his mother started smiling and decided to join him. They followed him towards the Unipose and walked up the stairs, excited to see the inside of someone's ship, unlike their broken down used one they borrowed from a friend. Tehctar saw the expression on Qwark, Talwyn and Clank's faces and told them to now ask.

"Before the contest," started Tehctar. "I met a new friend and, as you saw, I help him through the competition because he is living in poverty, and I invited him and his family over for dinner."

"How kind of you," said Clank. "I will help you set up dinner for them."

"Me to-" Talwyn started.

"Don't you dare, missie!" exclaimed Tehctar. "You got to rest that foot."

"Missie?" yelled Talwyn, before shaking her head and then laying back down.

Tehctar showed them to the dining room and tried to figure an organisation system for dinner. Tyuio had two parents, a sister and four friends, Clank, Talwyn and Qwark, but there were only six seats around the dinner table, but Tyuio's mother told him that she would have Myha sit on her lap.

"But what about-" started Tehctar.

"Don't bother straining over it," said Clank. "We'll let the family sit at the table, while Qwark and I will sit on the floor. Because the family deserves it for trying to do all they can under poverty, without being greedy."

* * *

"Dinner's finally ready," yelled out Tehctar, who had just made meals for everyone with the help of Tyuio, Clank and Qwark.

Tyuio offered to hand the plates to everyone at the table, and then sat on the floor with Tehctar, Clank and Qwark as Talwyn ate her dinner in bed and watched an episode of the "The Tyhrranoidette" where a group of male Tyhrranoids had to try and prove to a single female Tyhrranoid that they were romantic enough to be in a relationship with them.

Tyuio's mother, who's name was Rulia, graciously fed her little baby, who accepted the food with glee. However, Myha was full very quickly and Rulia let her walk around the ship. She first noticed Clank and walked next to him and then started playing with his antenna, and then Rulia smiled as Myha thought he was a living doll and then hugged him.

Clank had finished his dinner, and tried to get up to put his plate in the sink, but Myha kept holding on to him, so Qwark took his plate and placed it in the sink with his, Myha's, Talwyn's and Tyuio's friends', as well. His friends started walking around the spaceship, looking at it like it was something completely supernatural, but beautiful at the same time.

Qwark followed them into the cockpit and was swarmed by them, because they realised that he was the famous Captain Qwark. Tehctar had walked into the cockpit to see if the ship was normal, and laughed when he saw Qwark pinned down on the ground. After walking back, he saw that Rulia and Tyuio's father, Juki, were finished with their meals, and as he put the dishes in the sink, he asked them something.

"Would you be willing to sleep here tonight? Because there must not be much space in your ship."

"Oh," said Rulia. "We'd love to, but there's only four beds."

"Wrong," said Tehctar. "There's twelve beds." He walked over to the bed Talwyn was resting on and opened the compartment below it, and two beds connected to the bed at the bottom. After fiddling about with them, they were pushed upward until they stayed firm in a position that looked like three beds next to each other.

"There's two hours left until the next round, so you can rest here until the competition continues."

Out of the twelve beds, Rulia rested next to Juki and Talwyn, Tehctar rested next to Clank and Myha, two of Tyuio's friends slept next to him while the other two slept next to Qwark.

The alarm rang off, and Tehctar stopped and saw that there was ten minutes until the continuation of the competition. He woke everyone up and told them to get ready to enter the stadium. They had around **31 hours** until the deadline, so he wanted to hurry.

However, when he tried to open the door of the Unipose, he found out that the door had been sabotaged and they had been locked in. Tehctar banged on the door, trying to get out, but there was no-one passing the ship, and then he realised that Yuni had done this to prevent him from winning the competition. He desperately tried opening the door, for the sake of his life and for the sake of Tyuio's family, but could not open it.

"NO!"

Chapter 13 Preview

_The plan was going smoothly, and Tehctar had found Tyuio where he said he would be, but after being stopped by both __Yuni and Fautso, he knew there wouldn't be much time until they were knocked out. While giving Tyuio a vicious look and then winking quickly, he lightly tackled him while pretending to want him to die._

_Tyuio pressed his foot against the Tehctar and he pretend to kick him off his body, before getting up and throwing some mild punches, not causing any real damage, but bursting a few of the blood bandages that had been placed over his skin to make it look like he was bleeding._

_Against their wishes, the bell rang. Both Yuni and Fautso had been knocked out simultaneously, and unexpectedly, Tehctar and Tyuio were heading to the grand final…against each other._


	13. A Friendship in Despair

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_With Ratchet and Sasha gone, Tehctar enters the Jungalian Melee Contest to win a cloaking device, so they'll be able to infiltrate the Scarzare's base. He meets another contestant named Yuni, who is a bully determined to put Tehctar in his place after he smashed the locker door in his face. He also meets an alien boy named Tyuio, who is determined to be a finalist so he can win the 5,000 bolt secondary prize for his family, who is in poverty. Tehctar, Yuni and Tyuio all make it to the semi-finals, and Tehctar and Tyuio celebrate with his family in the Unipose. But ten minutes before the semi-finals, they find that the door has been sabotaged by Yuni so that they miss the competition…_

_Chapter 13: A Friendship in Despair_

"Help!" yelled Tehctar, still trying to bang on the door to bust it open.

"Can't you just open the windows?" asked Clank, and Tehctar tried opening them, but they were stuck too. He banged his fist on the console and screamed in anger.

"Hello, number 137?" said a mysterious person outside. Tehctar walked up to the window, and saw the booth attendant banging on the door. He saw Tehctar through the windows and walked up to him.

"Are you trapped?" he asked.

"Yes! Please get us out!" exclaimed Tehctar.

"Hold on!" said the booth attendant, before running through the parking lot and to the nearest guards, and started chatting to them. They then followed him back to the ship with a battering ram, and smashed the door open.

"Run as fast you can!" yelled the booth attendant as Tehctar and Tyuio sprinted to the preparation room, opening it with the keys and then through the door to the arena, seeing that the platform had already risen.

"It seems two of our contestants didn't have the guts to try the next round in this twist," said the announcer, which disappointed the judges greatly. Clank and Qwark ran up the stairs to the crowd and then tried to the get the announcer's attention, but he was too busy talking about the instructions for the semi-finals.

A whistling sound echoed through the arena and a firework shot up through a small slit between the wall and the small drawbridge, grabbing the announcer's attention. He moved over to the slit and looked down, meeting the eyes of Tehctar and Tyuio with a fireworks machine aiming up.

"It seems our missing contestants have arrived a little late," said the announcer, before beckoning to some workers to lower the platform. The crowd waited impatiently as the platform slowly went down, and then the drawbridge lowered, allowing Tehctar and Tyuio to jump on, turning Yuni's face red in anger. The platform once again rose and then the announcer moved over to Tehctar.

"Tell us…137," said the announcer, looking at the number on Tehctar's shirt. "Why did you and your friend arrive late? Did you oversleep? Or did you want to chicken out?" This teasing for the crowd going, making them happy.

"Well, actually," said Tehctar, looking Tyuio, who nodded. "We were sabotaged!" The crowd "ooh" and then began to chatter amongst themselves, before Tehctar continued. "We were resting in our ship, and when we woke up, the door and windows of the ship had been bolted down by someone who didn't want us to hinder them in the competition." The crowd all murmured, and the judges were debating amongst themselves about who tried to sabotage their participation.

"Well…" said the announcer, grabbing the crowds attention. "The only thing that matters is that they made it to the semi-finals!" The crowd started clapping as the announcer told Tehctar and Tyuio to join the straight line.

The line of eight contestants had their backs turned, as two employees floated the down with the pile of ropes, covering it with a sheet and straightening the ropes so they were facing every contestants.

"All right, contestants," said the announcer. "You may turn around." Tehctar turned with the rest of the contestants and gulped as he saw the ropes, and wondering which contestant he'd face off with. It could be Yuni, but it could be Tyuio, or it could even be 67, the giant pinkish alien, who was furiously trying to reach for his ropes with his stubby arms.

"Contestants, grab your ropes," said the announcer as 67 managed to grab his, and the rest just bent down and picked it up. The announcer jumped off the floating platform and grabbed the end of the sheet. "When I pull this cloth away, you all pull on your ropes and we'll find out who faces off against who."

He held the sheet for a while, getting the crowd excited and the contestants nervous, and then pulled it away and Tehctar pulled furiously on his rope, and was dragged around by the ropes untangling themselves, before opening his eyes and seeing that he was in front of 81, Yuni's smaller friend.

Tyuio opened his eyes, and saw he was facing 103, the shadowy black Markazian figure.

67, the pinkish ball of fat was facing against the Novalian bodybuilder, while Yuni saw 29 squinting his eyes, and then opening them, and started hyperventilating because he saw that he was facing Yuni, and then collapsed on the ground. Each of the ropes had numbers tied to them, telling the order of the battles. Yuni and 29 were first, 67 and 56 were second, Tyuio and 103 were third and Tehctar and 81 were last.

"Oooh!" said the announcer as crowd laughed. "It seems that our first battle isn't going to start, because a competitor just couldn't handle the pressure. Going to the survival round is number 64!" The crowd cheered as Yuni showed off his muscles, glad that he'd get to either crush Tehctar in the survival round or have the shadowy figure do it for him.

"Looks like we'll have to move on to the second pair, 67, named Fautso and 56, named Ikla." The crowd started chanting either Fautso's or Ikla's name as the giant drawbridge used as the entrance lowered and the three other pairs, along with two workers carrying 29 on a stretcher, began to walk out and wait outside for their turns. Tehctar saw the booth attendant inside the registration booth, checking a clipboard, when he noticed Tehctar in front of him.

"So did you get there in time?" asked the booth attendant, a little worried.

"We did, and I'm facing off against number 81 in the semi-finals," answered Tehctar.

"Ahh, number 81," said the booth attendant, checking through his clipboard. "You're facing off against Clorty."

"Okay, thanks," said Tehctar. "Who is that shadowy guy that Tyuio is facing off against?"

"That's Shadow," answered the booth attendant. "He's really mysterious, and nobody knows where he comes from, but he doesn't violate any registration rules, so we let him into the competition."

"Thanks," said Tehctar, before walking over to comfort Tyuio. "We've made it this far. I just hope that we win our matches so we can get to the survival round and get you your money for your family."

"Yeah," said Tyuio. "I'm glad we've made it this far. I wonder how the match between Fautso and Ikla is going." He walked over to the booth attendant. "Is there a screen anywhere near here that displays the match going on?" The booth attendant showed him around the corner, where Yuni and Clorty were watching the match.

* * *

Fautso was rolling around the arena with his belly, and Ikla patiently watched and then leaped in the air, bouncing off Fautso's stomach and landing on his head, causing great damage, before landing on the ground and taunting Fautso, and motioned for the crowd to clap and cheer.

Fautso had jumped up in the air, and Ikla was unaware when Fautso landed on him and tried to suffocate him until he fainted. But Fautso was lifted into the air by a giant hand and then thrown across the platform, using his rolling skills to keep himself on the edge of the platform.

He then began to roll towards Ikla, but he was prepared and tried to hold Fautso at bay, but eventually failed and was pushed off the edge, followed by Fautso, but Ikla hit the ground before him. The bell rang and the crowd cheered wildly as the announcer floated down to the platform.

"After a quick replay by the judges, the winner was number 67, Fautso, who hit the ground after number 56, Ikla." The crowd cheered and booed at the same time, while workers offered Ikla a stretcher to lay on, and he accepted it and rode out of the stadium into a treatment room. The booth attendant got Tyuio and Shadow to line up side by side for their match, and watched as the drawbridge lowered and Fautso exited beside them.

The crowd roared as Tyuio and Shadow walked in together, as the announcer began talking about them. "For our third match, we have number 138, Tyuio and number 103, Shadow. This odd pairing shows no clear answer as to who will win this exciting match. You may start fighting when you hear the bell."

The crowd chanted "Tyuio" and "Shadow" before the bell rang, and Shadow immediately sank into the ground moving around as just a shadow, hence the name. Tyuio started slowly walking back as the shadow approached him, and then realised that he was back up against the edge of the platform, and would have use the attack to his advantage.

Once the shadow reached under him, he jumped as just the right moment and kicked Shadow's head as it was coming out of the ground. Shadow screamed in pain as the rest of his body exited the ground, and fell on the floor, weakened from using up energy trying to resurface in pain.

Tyuio jumped on him, punching his face rapidly, and then decided to finish it off quick and grabbed him by the head, spinning him around making the crowd laugh, and then toss off the platform, winning the match.

"Congratulations, number 138!" said the announcer floating the platform. "This proves that if you're the last contestant to join, it doesn't mean you have the least power! Do you have anything to about this?"

"Well," said Tyuio into the microphone. "My family is in the crowd somewhere cheering for me, because he live in poverty and the 5,000 bolts I get for making it to the survival round will help us greatly." The announcer found the family and told a worker to shine a spotlight on them, and they all screamed in joy as the rest of the crowd clapped from them.

Tehctar watched this on the screen, and smiled at the family, finally getting their wish. But he knew the crowd would eat Tyuio if he just quit on the spot, so their plan was to find each other at a location they both agreed to in the survival round and pretend to fight for awhile until the crowd was happy. That is, if he got to the survival round. The drawbridge lowered, and Tehctar smiled as Tyuio exited the stadium happily and he and Clorty entered the arena, and moved into their position.

"Our last two contestants are number 137, Tehctar and number 81, Clorty. At first glance, it's seems that 81 will rip 137 a new one (no pun intended), but 137 is stronger than he looks. However, 137 doesn't have a good history with 81's friend, so this is the most exciting match yet! Just wait until the survival round. Contestants, are you ready?"

The bell rang as Qwark and Clank watch in anticipation, and Clorty charged at Tehctar, swinging a right hook, but missing because Tehctar dodged it to the right and then roundhouse kicked Clorty's head, knocking his backwards onto the ground. He immediately got up and Tehctar tried the good old leaping trick, but Clorty was smarter than looked and grabbed his legs and threw him over his shoulder, smashing his face into the ground.

Tehctar wiped the blood off his nose, and then stood up, and got ready for a leap, making Clorty spin around to block it, but Tehctar didn't leap and instead, did a backwards cartwheel and got close enough to whack Clorty's nose with his foot, and fell to ground, squirming.

"This is the bloodiest match, yet, folks," said the announcer, pretending that he was Tehctar and was dodging the punches that Clorty's started throwing after he got back up. Clorty threw a jab straight at Tehctar's head, but he managed to avoid it at the last second and hit him in the stomach with his left head and in the face with his right.

Clorty stumbled backwards, and then shook his head, trying to regain focus. Tehctar took this to his advantage and gave him an uppercut, but realised that his hand had been stopped by Clorty's. He cursed in pain as Clorty squashed his hand, but he managed to pull it away before he broke it.

Tehctar held his hand in pain, as Clorty punched him in the face, and pushed him to the ground, squirming in pain. The judges were shocked as Clorty picked him up and placed his own knee in front of him, and then held Tehctar high and dropped him, his stomach crashing into Clorty's knees and then fell to the ground, still somehow conscious.

Clorty picked up Tehctar again and held high above his head, and then walked over to the edge of the platform and was suddenly pushed the air by Tehctar who then did a mid-air somersault, positioning Clorty in front of him, before letting him go, and watched as he fell down to the base of the field, landing in the exact same space Fautso did when he fell, and then a creaking sound echoed through the stadium.

Tehctar realised that Fautso's landing had put pressure on the platform and Clorty's weight added to the pressure and realised that it would break soon, and make the worst of Clorty.

"QUICK! GET HIM OFF OF THERE!" yelled Tehctar to the announcer, who quickly got two workers to pick him up off the ground, as the crowd was confused at what was happening. The two workers reached Clorty and were about to pick him up when the base finally collapsed and Clorty fell through the hole in the base and was burned to death in the lava sheet.

* * *

Tehctar couldn't bare to look and laid back down on the platform, crying that someone had died because of him. The drawbridge lowered as the announcer was shocked at the death of a contestant, a first in the Jungalian Melee Contest, and workers were cramming to find Clorty's body, but they all knew that he was dead.

The crowd mumbled in shock and horror and his family cried, and Tyuio ran into the stadium and tried to comfort Tehctar, who didn't seem to be responding to anyone, and Yuni got so mad at him he tried to crush him, but was stopped by the guards and pulled back into the preparation room for some time out. Clank and Qwark had exited the crowd and after walking down the steps, ran to meet Tehctar and try to snap him out of his trance.

Employees moved Tehctar, Tyuio and Fautso to the preparation room, where Yuni had finally cooled down and realised that Tehctar tried to save his friend. The guards let Clank and Qwark in, due to the fact that they knew Tehctar and wanted to comfort him. Tehctar finally snapped out of his trance and said "I didn't do it" to Yuni, but he didn't care.

The waitress from earlier poured Tehctar a glass of cold water to cool him down after the fight, and then gave him a soft hug before walking off again.

"Yuni," said Tehctar. "Clorty was your best friend. Do you think he would have wanted to ruin the competition because we were too busy mourning to fight."

"He would have wanted the competition to carry on and display a good fight," said Yuni, with a tear in his eyes. Everyone else in the preparation room nodded, and booth attendant came to the front of the room and dared to continue everything like nothing happened.

"We planned to have those who made it to the survival round to meet the owners and producers of the contest," said the booth attendant, in his grey suit. "I am the contest manager and give support and instructions to the contestants. Do you wish for everything to go back to normal?" Everyone nodded and booth attendant told them that they have an hour until the survival round to eat a snack, meet the producers and get ready. The remaining contestants all moved into the room with the tables, which now had two long tables and long benches to sit at together.

The waiters and waitresses entered the room with biscuits and other types of snacks with sad looks on their faces, and placed the snacks on the tables for everyone to take at their own will. Tehctar took a few biscuits, and some weird-looking kind of potato chips, and ate them slowly. Tehctar was sitting at the back of the room, opposite to Tyuio, and then saw the contest manager moving to the back of the room, near Tehctar.

"Now, we would like to present you with our judges of the competition, Derto, Planu and Werks," said the manager, as the judges came into the room, and everyone started clapping. Werks was the fat judge and was closest to Tehctar, followed by Planu who was the Cazar, and Derto who was furthest away from him. Planu noticed Werks eying off Tehctar's food, and tapped Tehctar's shoulder to get his attention.

"If Werks tries to steal your food, you have permission to slap his hand," whispered Planu, before returning to her spot. "Miss Planu, do you have to say anything about the contestants going through to the next round?" asked the contest manager.

"Yes, thank you," said Planu. "First I want to start with Tehctar and Tyuio. In the first round they showed both great skills alone and together, and their friendship and determination is what wanted me to put them through to the next round, and when Tyuio told us all why he entered the competition, I was so grateful that I chose him. Yuni has a tremendous amount of strength which really puts his opponents in their place, but still needs to work on a little strategy, and also needs to control his temper. Fautso used his body to his advantage and created a great amount of strategic moves with it, which got my pick."

"That was great, Miss Planu. Now Mr. Werks, do you have anything to say about the contestants?" asked the manager, and Werks began to speak with his mouth full of food.

"Mrellwl, yhmoumml tmb mftrm drms-"

"Thank you, Mr. Werks, I'll have to cut you off there. Now Mr. Derto, do you have anything to say?"

"Well, actually Planu over there covered everything pretty well," said Derto.

"Okay then," said the contest manager. "It's now time to bring in the founder of this contest, Ertin Billius!" Everyone began to clap as a man in a blue tuxedo and wearing black sneakers walked in.

* * *

"Thank you," said Ertin, and everyone stopped clapping. "As some of you may know, I am a wealthy billionaire in the Woldgon Galaxy, and it is my great honour, as founder of this competition, to present you with your finalist prizes." He grabbed four giant bags of bolts, and handed them to Tehctar, Tyuio, Yuni and Fautso. Tehctar pressed a button on his Bolt Grabber, situated on his belt, and the bolts from the bag came flying into his Bolt Grabber, and the total rose to 5,000 bolts.

"The survival round starts in thirty minutes, so prepare and celebrate, just be in the forest next to the stadium in twenty minutes tops," said the contest manager, before exiting with the judges and Ertin Billius. Tyuio got out of his seat with the bag of bolts and Tehctar quickly followed him outside, where his parents were waiting, and where thrilled when they saw the bag, and Rulia even fainted.

Tehctar helped Juki bring Rulia into the ship and Clank and Qwark followed them inside. It was currently 9:30 and the survival round was going to start at 10:00, followed by the grand final and closing ceremony at 11:00. They rested Rulia on a bed near Talwyn and she asked if Tehctar won, and he pointed to the Bolt Grabber.

Tehctar ran back to the preparation room and grabbed his jacket, because it was chilly, and then ran back to the Unipose, and talked with Tyuio and Juki for awhile.

"So, in the survival round, Tyuio and I will meet at a location we have yet to discuss, and then pretend to fight, so if you see me viciously beating him up, it's fake," said Tehctar, still discussing details. "I have made these blood bandages for you and I to where, Tyuio. They blend in with your skin, and when even lightly punched, the bandage will burst and start leaking fake blood, so the crowd doesn't get suspicious."

Juki nodded in agreement, and Tyuio revealed a map of the forest. It was covered in small patches of trees and logs, and Tyuio pointed to the top-left hand corner of the map, where there was a fairy ring of trees.

"That is where we'll meet, so when we enter the forest at different sides, you have to turn your vision north and go to the fairy ring from there," said Tyuio, rolling the map back up and putting it away. "So are you ready to go, Tehctar?"

"Let's go," said Tehctar, smiling and grabbing the blood bandages, placing them on Tyuio's forehead, chin, nose and cheeks, before placing his own darker yellow ones on himself in the same spots. They walked out of the Unipose together, and walked up to the manager, who got a guard to direct Tyuio to his starting position, and took Tehctar himself.

Tehctar kept track of where they were as the manager mumbled on about Yuni and Tyuio and the match will be the most exciting one yet, before a stampede of fans spotted Tehctar and smothered him, trying to get his autograph. All Tehctar could see were the faces of aliens screaming and shouting, and was pulled along by the manager who desperately tried to get him to his starting position.

Once they got there, he got a bunch of guards to prevent the fans getting closer to Tehctar, who was trying to figure which entrance he was in. He thought that he went too long to be going to the left entrance, which would mean he'd have to turn left upon entry, but thought that he was at the top entrance, and would have to turn right upon entry.

However, due to the crowd slowing him down, he didn't realise he had been taken to the left entrance, and turning right would only get him to a pattern of trees shaped like a cross. Some guards approached him with torches, and lit the medieval pole lanterns, before walking off to the next entrance.

Tyuio had fans rushing near him, cheering him on and giving him support, which helped his confidence greatly, but didn't deter his knowledge of where they were going to meet. He had been taken right, and only spotted one entrance, and that was the entrance he was entering in, meaning he had to walk straight until he reached the other entrance, and then turn right.

A bell rang loudly as the fans for each corner cheered and the contestants all ran into the jungle, with no possible escape until two men are left standing. Tehctar entered the jungle, and immediately ran beside the gate and then turned left, looking for the fairy ring, and then noticed Yuni waiting for him behind a tree, and was then tackled by him.

Tehctar struggled with him for a while, before throwing him off, and then thinking that he might have been dropped off at the left entrance, and would have to go left. But now, he'd have to go north…except he didn't know where north was. He was punched in the back by Yuni, who had gotten up and Tehctar fell to the ground, squirming in pain, and was then pulled back up by Yuni.

"This is for Clorty!" yelled Yuni before he pulled Tehctar to a tree and tried smashing his head into it, but Tehctar used the momentum to flip himself into a forwards somersault, and hit Yuni in the head while his legs came to the ground, making him roll around for a while, until Tehctar realised where he was.

He remembered that on the map, a cross of trees facing north-west was on the bottom-left corner of the map, and saw that he hit Yuni to ground, just at the intersection of the trees, and found out where north was. He left Yuni on the ground and ran through the cross of trees, running northward, until he passed his starting gate where the fans cheered him on as he ran past, and then came to the fairy ring of trees, where he supported himself on the tree and tried to catch his breath.

"I've been waiting for you," said the deep familiar voice of Fautso, who stood in the middle of the ring, and noticed Tyuio holding his stomach, using the tree to get back up after being run over by Fautso. "I knew that after winning the 5,000 bolts, that he would use his best friend to get him out of the match without hurting either of you. Well, that didn't go well did it?"

"Listen," began Tehctar before Fautso started rolling towards him, and narrowly missed hitting Tehctar after he dodged it, and then started sprinting south-east to lure Fautso away from Tyuio and then trick him. He reached what he thought was the centre and positioned himself in front of a tree, panting, and watched as a pink ball rolled over logs and towards Tehctar.

When Fautso got as close as Tehctar would dare, he dived to the right and heard a massive thud, as Fautso slammed straight into a tree trunk, confusing him for a while, and giving Tehctar enough time to run back to Tyuio and finally execute the plan, because he knew that Yuni and Fautso would cross paths after time and battle it out.

The plan was going smoothly, and Tehctar had found Tyuio where he said he would be, but after being stopped by both Yuni and Fautso, he knew there wouldn't be much time until they were knocked out. While giving Tyuio a vicious look and then winking quickly, he lightly tackled him while pretending to want him to die.

Tyuio pressed his foot against the Tehctar and he pretend to kick him off his body, before getting up and throwing some mild punches, not causing any real damage, but bursting a few of the blood bandages that had been placed over his skin to make it look like he was bleeding.

Against their wishes, the bell rang. Both Yuni and Fautso had been knocked out simultaneously, and unexpectedly, Tehctar and Tyuio were heading to the grand final…against each other.

* * *

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" chanted the crowd, as Tehctar and Tyuio entered the stadium for one last time, and instead of working together, their friendship was put to the test because they had to fight each other.

Tyuio's family and friends, Clank and Qwark watched as in anticipation of the match, remembered Tehctar pulling Tyuio behind the Unipose to talk to him earlier. They all wondered what they were talking about and what they were going to do in the match. The crowd chanted "Tehctar" and "Tyuio", however some remained quiet, because they didn't know who to cheer for.

Tehctar took off his jacket, and threw it to a worker, who proceeded to place it in his locker. He winked at Tyuio, and did some warm-ups and, to make the crowd happy, some taunts. The bell rang, and Tehctar immediately jumped forward and pretended to hit Tyuio twice, before being hit in the stomach lightly.

Some of the fake blood Tehctar had placed in a soft container inside his mouth poured out as Tehctar squeezed the container with his teeth. The crowd gasped as Tehctar pretended to be bleeding, and then started cheering as he picked Tyuio up and spun him around and around and then dropped him, making him deliberately confused and dizzy.

Tyuio managed to stand up dazed, before being tackled by Tehctar, who pretended to try and squash him, but he managed to escape the hold, and come back to his senses. He pretended to flip backwards and kick Tehctar in the head, who pretended to hold his head in pain, and then was kicked in the back by Tyuio, knocking Tehctar to the ground, and pretended to be barely conscious.

Tyuio pulled Tehctar upright, and was then grabbed at the sides by Tehctar, who pulled him over his head forward into the ground, and stood up smashing Tyuio's head into his crotch. He attempted to try it again but was pulled up by Tyuio and pushed into the ground, making a thud sound as he hit.

Tyuio dragged Tehctar to the edge of the platform, but was kicked back by Tehctar and off the platform, managing to grab onto the ledge by his fingertips. Tehctar got up and walked back to the edge and was to lift his leg, and then Tyuio gave him a wink and jumped up, hitting Tehctar's head lightly as he pretended to have been given a weird kind of uppercut, and fell on the ground and "the momentum" rolled him off the edge onto the base below.

Qwark and Clank gasped as Tehctar laid on the ground, having been defeated by Tyuio, and realised that Tehctar had deliberately wanted Tyuio to win, so he could sell the cloaking device and make his family happy for life. The drawbridge lowered, and Ertin Billius entered with the cloaking device, which was a flat piece of machinary with large tubes going from the top to the bottom to the top again.

"Congratulations, number 138, you haved defeated your opponent and won the grand prize, a cloaking device which can be installed on any piece of machinery, like your Holo-diary or that one Holo-film that you don't want your friends to know you like," said the announcer, floating down to Tyuio, circling him and eventually raising his arm in the air.

Ertin presented Tyuio with the cloaking device, and the crowd cheered wildly as Tyuio smiled and held the device up in the air, before the workers helped Tehctar back up onto the platform and he shook Tyuio's hand, before leaving with him and Ertin, the drawbridge closing behind them. Qwark and Clank appeared out of the stairway and ran towards Tehctar.

"Why did you let Tyuio win, he needed the 5,000 bolts and we needed the cloaking device to infiltrate the Scarzare's base, not to mention the time we wasted," they yelled at him. Tehctar calmly placed his hands on their lips and then slid them off.

"My life is not as important as a family's life, and the cloaking device will support his family for generations, when it would just benefit me my life. It doesn't matter to me anymore. I'll still try to infiltrate the base, but if I get killed, I get killed," said Tehctar, making Tyuio, Qwark, Clank and Tyuio's family and friends, who had heard him on the stairway while coming down, all start to get teary eyed, before Tehctar walked into the preparation room to take his jacket out of the locker. Tyuio followed him to the entrance, and then when the door closed, he ran off.

Tehctar had taken his jacket out of the locker, closed it and turned around, and saw Tyuio walking down the steps, sad that Tehctar would die because of him. Tehctar stepped out of the way as he opened the locker, and took his bag of food and bottle of water he never used, and then left.

Tehctar felt bad that he was doing to die, but he wanted to help a family of aliens who desperately needed the money. He wanted to give his 5,000 bolts to Tyuio, but he insisted to spend it on something that will help him survive against whoever he was fighting. He walked outside and saw Qwark and Clank sitting on the stairs of the Unipose, waiting for Tehctar to leave.

He saw Tyuio hopping into their ruggedy spaceship, and waved to him before they disappeared into space to start their new life. He ran over to Qwark and Clank, who were angry with Tehctar, but didn't show the expressions on their faces.

"We should get some rest before leaving, ey?" asked Tehctar, and then walked in with Qwark and Clank, and slept on the beds with Talwyn for a few hours. Tehctar woke up, and heard birds chirping in the distance. He got up and pulled his jacket on, before stepping outside and seeing workers cleaning up after the mess of popcorn and food dropped by the crowd on the way out, and saw the booth attendant, checking the bolts paid by the spectators, noticed Tehctar and waved at him.

Tehctar smiled, and walked back into the ship, noticing they had wasted a fair amount of time and only had **26 hours **left until the deadline. He walked towards the pilot seat to take off, but tripped and fell into the chair. Qwark and Clank heard and went to see what happened, before smiling at the ground. Tehctar was confused, and looked at what they were smiling at, and saw that he had tripped on the cloaking device that had been laid there by Tyuio.

Chapter 14 Preview

"_Lock on to the transmission coming through!" yelled Tehctar, as Clank and Qwark fiddled around with the console. The message that was coming through was very hazy and they still couldn't a proper reception. Tehctar looked through the windows, to see if any ships or satellites were around, and guessed that the tranmission must have been coming from the planet below them._

"_The transmission coming a bit clearer," said Clank. "We might be able to make out the audio, just no visual contact. The all listened for anything coming through, and heard nothing until a muffled voice came through. Clank turned a few dials and could hear the sender perfectly._

"_I'm back…" said a familiar Lombax's voice._


	14. Reunite, Repair, Recieve

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Tehctar made it to the semi-finals of the Jungalian Melee Competition along with Tyuio and Yuni, who all made it to the survival round with him. After getting lost, Tehctar found the place where Tyuio wanted Tehctar to pretend to knock him out, so the crowd doesn't get angry and stampede him like many contestants before him and he gains his 5,000 bolts for his family in poverty. However, Yuni and Fautso get knocked first and they face each other in the grand final, where Tehctar deliberately rolls off the edge, and Tyuio wins the cloaking device. Once they began to leave, they find out that Tyuio had placed the cloaking device in the Unipose, so Tehctar could continue on his journey._

_Chapter 14: Reunite, Repair, Receive_

The Unipose just exited the atmosphere, and Tehctar began to find out where they can find out where the Scarzare is. He pushed a bunch of buttons on the console and eventually a person with grey skin, blue lips and eyes covered by a hood appeared on the screen.

"What did you find?" asked Clank, who was reading the latest Readers Digested magazine.

"Apparently, there is a mage on Gyuliane, an ocean world inhabited by people living with caves," said Tehctar. "It says here that she can create a tracker for any being you want to follow, however, you need a piece of their DNA."

"But we've never run into the Scarzare yet, and we don't know where he is," said Clank, proving the point useless.

"Yes…but it also says she can heal bruises and broken bones, meaning that Talwyn will better again," said Tehctar, lifting his head from the console. "Plus, it will only take a few hours and we need Talwyn for this fight."

He left the room and walked into the dining room, where Talwyn was laying on the bed and Qwark was reading another comic book about Captain Starshield he found dropped on Jungalia.

"Talwyn," said Tehctar, making her sit upright and look at him. "There is a mage on Gyuliane who will be able to heal your leg."

"Really?" exclaimed Talwyn, raising her fists into the air. Tehctar smiled, and then noticed the Mimbian vendor in the corner of his eye, and then walked up to it and purchased the Saw Blaster, in case Ratchet came back. He then walked back into the cockpit and grabbed the cloaking device, and looked at it, and found an instruction manual for installation on ships stuck on the back.

_Open a spare__ rectangular upgrade port on your ship's console._

_Slide the cloaking device in with the button facing upwards._

_Connect the red wires on your ship to the holes in the lowest tube, then connect the single yellow wire in the upgrade port to the holes in the second highest tube. Lastly, connect all the blue wires into the remaining holes in the tubes._

_Close the upgrade port, and a green neon square button should pop out._

Tehctar followed the instructions to the letter, and then close the port, and surely enough, a green neon square button popped out.

"Everyone get ready!" yelled Tehctar. "We are about to cloak ourselves!" Tehctar pressed the neon button, and a screeching sound washed all over the ship, before a female computer voice announced, "Ship now cloaked." Tehctar nodded in approval, and decided to see the ship (or lack there-of) from the outside, so he halted the Unipose to a stop.

He put on his spacesuit, and walked up the ladder, and then floated into space, and saw that his spacesuit was attached to nothing, as there was no ship where he exited. He lowered himself down, and landed on what looked like nothing, but was actually the Unipose with the cloaking device in action. He floated to where the oxygen tube disappeared and then found himself inside the ship, and able to see everything.

He took the usual two door precautions so no oxygen inside leaks out, and then jumped back down and re-boosted the engines. Even the exhaust from the engines couldn't be seen as they kept travelling westwards to Gyuliane, and Tehctar and Qwark took some spare wood from down in the engine room and began making crutches, so Talwyn could walk. While the banging sounds of hammers rang throughout the entire ship, Clank managed to contact Cronk in the Polaris Galaxy.

"Hello again, Cronk," said Clank. "I am currently travelling in a ship and I was wondering if you would like to play Galactic Battleship against me with a pencil and paper?"

"Sure thing, Clank," said Cronk. "Zephyr is asleep, and I'm glad because he was boring me to death. I'll go and get myself a pen and paper, and then draw up a grid." Cronk left the screen as Clank ran into the dining room and took a pencil and paper off the table, and ran back to the screen where Cronk was waiting for him. The pieces that Clank and Cronk drew on their papers were a Mothership, a Battleship, a Fighter, a Bomber and a Scouter.

Tehctar and Qwark finally finished making Talwyn's underarm crutches and she put them on, and was able to walk around the dining room by herself and then walked out into the cockpit, where she saw Clank talking to Cronk.

"Cronk!" yelled Talwyn, walking over to the screen.

"Talwyn, is that you?" asked Cronk, trying to see Talwyn's face in the screen. "What happened to your leg?"

"I broke it," said Talwyn, biting her lip and moving Clank over to be main focus on the screen. "Apparently there is a mage on Gyuliane who can heal it. So what are you doing with Clank?"

"We're playing a game of Galactic Battleship, because Zephyr is a bore and fell asleep from his own story!"

"Okay," said Talwyn, laughing. "You two enjoy your game," she said before walking off.

"D7!" yelled Cronk to Clank, who check his paper and got angry.

"You sunk my Bomber!"

Tehctar walked over to Qwark who was reading the comic book, and looked at what he was reading, before the BING! BING! BING! blared through the ship again. He ran over to the cockpit and slowed the engines to a stop, before realising that they didn't have the Aphelion anymore, and that they'd have to go down with the Unipose, but he decided to wait a while in case he came back.

"Sorry, Cronk, but we've reached our destination, how about we continue later?" asked Clank, and Cronk nodded before Clank shut off the transmission, only to be greeted by a another one, except the screen was snowy all over and couldn't tell who it was. Tehctar was curious, and switched off the cloaking device, making the Unipose seemingly appear out of nowhere.

"Lock on to the transmission coming through!" yelled Tehctar, as Clank and Qwark fiddled around with the console. The message that was coming through was very hazy and they still couldn't a proper reception. Tehctar looked through the windows, to see if any ships or satellites were around, and guessed that the transmission must have been coming from the planet below them.

"The transmission coming a bit clearer," said Clank. "We might be able to make out the audio, just no visual contact. The all listened for anything coming through, and heard nothing until a muffled voice came through. Clank turned a few dials and could hear the sender perfectly.

"I'm back…" said a familiar Lombax's voice.

* * *

"RATCHET?" yelled Tehctar. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

"Just to the Bogon Galaxy for some last minute upgrades," said Ratchet, now appearing on the screen. "Let's find the Scarzare!"

Aphelion suddenly went around a yellow planet and into the Unipose's sight, obviously now equipped with lasers and rockets, and Sasha was sitting in the seat next to Ratchet. Aphelion landed in the claws on top of the Unipose, and was grabbed by them, and they together boarded the ship. Tehctar, Qwark, Talwyn and Clank all lined up in a straight line and watched as Ratchet and Sasha rejoined their team.

"Reports?" asked Ratchet, helping Sasha down the ladder. "We successfully escaped the Battle of Aluyia (and saw you taking off with Sasha), and won the cloaking device on Jungalia, and now we are heading to Gyuliane to find a mage to help Talwyn's leg and possibly find out where the Scarzare is. We have 25 hours remaining."

"Okay," said Ratchet. "Firstly, I'm sorry for running off. I was confused and needed some time out. Secondly, what on Veldin do you have on your head, Tehctar?" Everyone turned to Tehctar and saw that he had placed a fez on his head.

"It's a fez, I wear a fez now," said Tehctar, a little embarrassed at everyone staring at him. Sasha winked at Talwyn and she grabbed the fez off of Tehctar's head and threw it into the air, while Sasha whipped out Lancer and blasted it to pieces.

"Damn," said Tehctar, before realising he had the Saw Blaster behind his back and threw it to Ratchet, who caught it confused and then realising that Tehctar had bought the Saw Blaster.

"Oh, thanks, Tehctar," said Ratchet before walking over to the Mimbian vendor. "And I have got something for you." He scrolled over to the Standard Mimbian Armor and bought two of them with the 2,000 bolts he collected on Lavarti and Aluyia, and gave one to Tehctar while he put on his. The SMA was a dark blue metal costumes with silver "swishes" painted around it, and the helmet was dark blue with a silver mouthpiece.

"So," said Ratchet. "Are we back to normal?" Everyone nodded and laughed and then walked off to do their own thing, while Ratchet turned to Sasha and winked at her, before walking to the cockpit with Tehctar, who was still angry at Sasha and Talwyn for destroying his fez.

"So, Tehctar," said Ratchet, before realising he didn't have anything to say.

"Yeah?" asked Tehctar who was checking if all the buttons were working.

"So, how long until we Gyuliane?" asked Ratchet, twiddling his thumbs.

"We're already in orbit, we just got to use the Aphelion to go down," said Tehctar, who noticed the cloaking device button. "Hey, Ratchet, do you want see what happens when I press the button for the cloaking device?"

"Okay." Tehctar slammed his hand on the green square neon button and a screeching pierced throughout the ship and then stopped, and Ratchet realised that no-one could see them now.

"Cool! So, should I get ready to go down to Gyuliane?"

"No! You need to take a break after all your hard work on Mernasia and Lavarti! We'll assemble a party now inside the dining room," said Tehctar before walking into the dining room with Ratchet.

"Okay, people," said Tehctar with a raised voice which caught everyone's attention. "We need to assemble a party to go down to Gyuliane. I've already decided that Ratchet isn't going. How about you, Sasha?"

"No, thanks," said Sasha, scrubbing her boots with a towel. "Last time I went to a planet with you guys, I got kidnapped by a maniac." She gave a vicious smile to Ratchet, which was returned with a jokey sneer.

"Talwyn is obviously going to get her leg healed. Clank, what about you?"

"Well…I might as well, because the mage's words might be too confusing for you," he said, before performing his trademark laugh.

"Okay, that's Talwyn and Clank, which leaves Qwark. Qwark, do you want to go?"

"Not really, I've already been with Talwyn on Mernasia, so how about you go, because you haven't been with Talwyn yet?"

"Good idea," said Tehctar, before gathering Talwyn and Clank. "Get ready, guys. We are leaving in 10 minutes."

Tehctar sat in the pilot's seat of Aphelion and watched as Clank attached a pulley system to Talwyn's belt and pulled her up with his own strength. Tehctar checked that the Communication Crystal was on, and then saw Talwyn being lifted up by rope and laughed. Once she was fitted into her seat next to him, she slapped him because angrily crossing her arms.

Clank sat in the back and waited as Tehctar checked all of the vital systems on Aphelion, and then fired up the engines. Ratchet pressed a button on at the cockpit of the Unipose and the claws let Aphelion go and rocket off down into the atmosphere of Gyuliane. Aphelion burned through the ozone layer and then busted through clouds and eventually a gigantic ocean filled with above ground caves covered Aphelion's view.

"Ratchet?" asked Tehctar as he piloted Aphelion over the caves. "Which one of these caves do we need to go in?"

"Hold on a sec," said Ratchet as he fiddled around with the console. "Okay, I've pinpointed your location. From where you are, turn left and keep going straight until you see a purple cave instead of the usual brown ones. Once you pass there, start angling a little to the left until a brown cave with a white-grey "patio", and land there."

Tehctar followed his instructions, and came across a huge brown cave with a white-grey landing pad of sorts. Aphelion landed there, and Tehctar helped Talwyn out and gave her the crutches and she walked along in front of Aphelion and waited for Clank to get out. Tehctar and Clank walked past Talwyn and she followed them into the cave.

The cave was bluish-green and bended to the right, where a hooded girl sat on a tree trunk, covered in darkness. She noticed that they were looking at her from a distance, and rose her head, revealing her grey skin and blue lips, while the rest of her face was hooded.

"You wished to see me?" she asked, tilting her head to the left.

"Ubbbb," stuttered Tehctar before pulling himself together. "We didn't inform you we were going to see you, how did you know that we were coming?"

"I see everything," said the mage, standing up, revealing her short skinny grey legs, and wore tattered grey robes going down to her knees. "I see the past, I see future, and like everyone else, I see the present. I saw the end of the universe. I saw the beginning. I have lived for million of years and never aged. What is it you wish to see me about?"

"We'd like you to heal our friend," said Tehctar. "She has a broken leg."

"Bring her to me," she said, pulling the hood back, revealing aqua eyes, with no white at all in them, and no hair at all, with wrinkles down her face. Talwyn began to walk with the crutches towards as she spoke. "I have healed many people before, and even saved many from death. However, death cannot be reversed, as it is the end of one's journey, while I was fortunate enough to have no end to my journey. The last person who ever saw me was a lost adventurer, who saw my cave floating in space, after Gyuliane was destroyed. My cave, much like my body, can never be destroyed."

Talwyn had reached the mage and was standing there, waiting for the mage to do something. The mage sat back down and Talwyn followed her as well, as she could, and only managed to have her broken leg sticking out.

"Perfect," said the mage, before staring at her leg, which started vibrating mildly, but gradually turned violent until she heard a crack, but felt no pain, and saw that her leg was sticking up in the air, and then she stood up.

"Was that crack meant to hu-" Talwyn realised that she stood without the help of her crutches, which were laying on the ground unused. The edge's of the mage's mouth shifted upwards into a smile. Talwyn looked at her leg, and then to Tehctar and Clank, then back to her leg and then to the mage, followed by her dancing wildly with her legs moving in every possible direction.

Tehctar and Clank ran over to Talwyn and grabbed her to keep her from doing anything stupid. The mage just sat there without paying any attention to her surroundings, and Tehctar noticed her and remembered that they were going to ask her about the tracking device.

"Ummmm, so, what's your name?" asked Tehctar, so he could ask her about the tracker.

"MY NAME IS NOT IMPORTANT," said the mage firmly. "But if you insist, just call me Fryg."

"So, Fryg. I hear you make tracking devices?" asked Tehctar, scratching his head a little at what he called her.

"Yes. Do you wish to find someone who is lost?"

"Ummm, sure. If that's what you want to call it."

"Then I need a piece of that someone's DNA."

"Darn! I don't have any DNA of that person. No hair, no fingerprint, no blood, no skin. Crap!"

"Do not fret, young boy. All you have to do is find someone who has the DNA."

"And where will I find that someone."

"Like I said, I can see the future. That someone is landing in their ship, just outside my cave in five seconds."

"Five seconds?" 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and suddenly a whirring sound, followed by a metal clunk echoed through the cave from the outside. Tehctar, Talwyn and Clank started running an began to see a small white ship, and then stopped when they saw a clone of Sasha, with the distinct purplish skin colour and scar on the right cheek…

* * *

"What?" exclaimed Tehctar as the clone of Sasha walked up to him, and placed her fingers on Tehctar's mouth.

"Now, please, let me explain," said the clone, before walking away from them and stopping. "The Scarzare was cloned from the Galactic President, and the cloning mutated and created me out of him. I thought I'd be fine with my father, but he turned out to be…well…a bastard. I wanted to have the peacefulness that my counterpart has, so, I helped Tachyon and Nefarious escape from the Scarzare so that they'd let me run off on my own. So I began looking, and then arrived at the Battle of Aluyia, where I saw Sasha with you, going into battle, so I waited and then followed your ship to the Jungalian Melee Contest. I was in the crowd, looking for Sasha, but couldn't find her, and then I noticed that one of her friends was participating in battle. I watched him and his ship, from the time that bear dude sabotaged the doors and windows to the time that little yellow alien planted some device in the ship. I then followed you here, and noticed that sometimes you'd disappear and reappear because of that thing the alien put in your ship. Then I followed the other ship that came to here and then found you."

"Okay," said Tehctar. "Understood, but I thought Tachyon and Nefarious died in the explosion!"

"So you we're the awesome little rascals who tried to finish them. Well done. Unfortunately, they all survived. Drek, Vox and Otto were rescued from the rubble by their leader, Master, while my dad had enough time to teleport Tachyon and Nefarious to the base before they were found in the rubble. Do you know who Master is?"

Everyone shook their head and so the clone continued.

"Master is a shape-shifting lifeform who decided to gather the most heinous villains and then take over the universe. You can call me Sasha2 and now, you are probably wondering if I could lead to the base. Unfortunately, I can't. I tried to pay attention to where I was going from the base, but it got too confusing with all the similar planets and gave up."

"Well that doesn't matter," said Talwyn. "The mage inside this cave can make tracking devices using only that persons DNA."

"It could work," said Sasha2, thinking about the implications. "However, my DNA spawned from my father's DNA which spawned from the Galactic President's. So, in actually, you would be finding me or the Scarzare, you would be finding the Galactic President. But my father said that he stole his counterpart and locked him up in the base's dungeon."

"So, do you want to join us?" asked Tehctar.

"Sure thing, just until I manage to KILL MY FATHER!" Tehctar, Clank and Talwyn all stared at her blankly because of her viciousness.

"We should really get a name for our little group," said Tehctar, getting out of the shock. "We'll think about on the ship. But right now, we need to get ourselves a tracker!"

They all ran back into the cave, where Fryg was sitting there with the hood over her eyes again.

"Fryg, we have the DNA you need to make a tracker," said Tehctar walking up to the mage with Sasha2 in hand. They stopped in front of her, and Tehctar brought out some scissors, and cut a bit of hair from her furry skin off, and gave it to Fryg, who placed it in a cylindrical container with a blue liquid inside and a dispenser at the bottom, and placed it on the ground, pulled back her hood and stared at it with her cold aqua eyes.

The liquid inside the vial started to bubble, and eventually bubbled so much that no-one could see the hair inside. It got sucked into the bottom of the container and suddenly, smoke poured out of the dispenser and a small silver chip with a green screen on the front popped out. Tehctar grabbed and tried fiddling around with it, but it wouldn't register anything. No matter what he tried, nothing showed up on the screen.

"The DNA was cloned, therefore you need an extra component to find the original source of DNA," said Fryg, pulling the hood back over her eyes.

"Where should we get this component?" asked Tehctar, looking around on the small chip.

"Warta," said the mage. "Warta is where you will find the extra component. I now await my next visitor, who will come in 6 hours."

Tehctar, Talwyn, Clank and Sasha2 left the mage to rest for the next six hours, and enter Aphelion once more, while Sasha2 decided to leave her ship on Gyuliane and return to it once her quest was finished. Tehctar checked the Communication Crystal and saw that Ratchet was waiting for any Tehctar had to say.

"Ratchet, we have healed Talwyn, and managed to get a tracker from someone who has the DNA. They decided to join us, so get everyone lined up in the dining room, waiting for us to come on. Set a course to Warta, because we need to find an extra component for reasons I'll explain later," said Tehctar.

"Roger that," said Ratchet, before turning off the Crystal. Aphelion exited the atmosphere of Gyuliane and flew up to the Unipose, before landing inside the claws, and waiting for them to shut, but they didn't.

"Ratchet…" said Tehctar, with an unpatient face.

"Oh, sorry," said Ratchet, shutting the claws and allowing the group to go down.

Ratchet joined the line of Sasha and Qwark and watched as the hatch opened and a ladder fell out, following by Tehctar who slid down and Talwyn who jumped down and hugged Ratchet tightly. Sasha looked at him and he looked at her, guilty that he hasn't told Talwyn about them.

Once Talwyn finally let go of Ratchet and stood beside him, Clank came down the ladder and moved over to Tehctar, and they all watched as Sasha2 climbed down, and Sasha fell to the ground in a heap. Tehctar and Ratchet managed to throw a bucket of water over Sasha's head and wake her up, and then begin to explain to her who Sasha2 is.

"Sasha?" asked Tehctar, whose voice was muffled in Sasha's hearing, before coming clear quickly. "We need to explain something to you. You know how the Scarzare was cloned from your father? Well, the girl who looks like you over there, her name is Sasha2 and she was a mutation of the DNA inside the Scarzare, producing a daughter. She hates the Scarzare and wanted you to help her kill her father, which is basically what we are trying to do, so she joined us!"

Sasha spat some water out of her mouth and nodded before taking a towel from Qwark, and drying her head, and she got up and walked over to Sasha2 who was sitting on the right couch.

"Ummmmm, hi….me?" stuttered Sasha, who didn't know what to do say to herself.

"It's awkward, isn't it?" asked Sasha2, twiddling her thumbs unexcitedly.

"Well, it is. So, are you the exact same as me? I mean, do you have the same interests as me?"

"Well, no. I have the same interests as your father, because my father was a clone who was cloned from the evil inside my dad, hence the purple colour and scar. But I was a mutation, and I came out of all the goodness that had to be cloned into my father, but just not used. So, basically, I'm the good part of your dad."

"That's so weird. Do you want to talk privately?"

"Yeah, okay."

Everyone noticed them looking at them and they all left for the cockpit, with Ratchet being last, who Sasha winked to. Sasha2 noticed Sasha doing this and thought of a question to ask her.

"So did you and Ratchet ever…" Sasha2 didn't feel like finishing the question, but Sasha knew what she meant.

"Well, once…in the Bogon Galaxy. Ratchet saved me from the Tyhrranoids on Aluyia and we went to Megapolis, and things turned crazy from there. However, when we woke up, Mr. Fizzwidget, owner of Megacorp, called up and asked if he could do Ratchet anything, and Ratchet asked him if he could repair Aphelion and upgrade her, and he agreed immediately. I love Ratchet, very much."

Sasha2 smiled, and then frowned because she realised that no-one loved her.

"No-one has ever loved me. My father didn't, Tachyon and Nefarious didn't and nobody at all that I have met has loved me."

"Hey, hey, don't be sad. I love you, because…you're me, and I'm sure that someone will love you even more soon."

Ratchet knocked on the door to the dining room, and Sasha2 opened it, crying and then crawled into one of the beds nearby. He decided it would be best if he didn't talk about it, and sat down next to Sasha.

"So, how are you doing?" asked Ratchet sweetly.

"I'm doing fine, I'm just a little shocked at me having a clone."

"It must be weird. It reminds me of the time my DNA was extracted by Emperor Otto Destruct. I had versions of me tiny and agile or huge and fat!" Sasha started laughing when she imagined the clones of Ratchet.

"I just hope that my father is okay. At least I have someone I love by my side," said Sasha, who stared at Ratchet. They both started to lean in and join their lips romantically.

"Hey, Ratchet, I found-" said Talwyn entering the room with a vid-comic in her hand, before realising that he and Sasha were kissing. "Ratchet…"

"Talwyn, wait!" yelled Ratchet as tears started rushing out of Talwyn's eyes and she climbed down to the engine room, slamming and locking the trapdoor above her.

Chapter 15 Preview

"_So what should we name ourselves?" asked Tehctar to the whole group._

"_How about 'The Betrayers'," said Talwyn, sitting in the corner and staring at Ratchet angrily._

"_Lets be more serious," said Tehctar. "I think that naming ourselves 'The Resistance' or the 'The Defenders' is too cheesy. We need a name that describes us all uniquely. Everyone started thinking, but could not think up of a name that described them uniquely and wasn't cheesy. BING! BING! BING! The Unipose had made it into orbit of Warta, and the group waited for Tehctar's orders._

"_Well, looks like the Unipose has-" began Tehctar before he realised that he had just thought of a name that wasn't chessy at all and described them uniquely._

"_How about 'The Uniposers'?"_


	15. The Uniposers

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After finding out that there is a mage on Gyuliane that can heal Talwyn's leg, Ratchet and Sasha return to the group with an upgraded Aphelion. Tehctar, Talwyn and Clank all see the mage, who heals Talwyn's leg, and then Sasha2 arrives, and she joins them so she could kill her father. Fryg, the mage, creates a tracker from Sasha2's DNA to find the Galactic President, but because Sasha2 was cloned, they set off to find an extra component on Warta. After returning the Unipose, Talwyn catches Ratchet and Sasha kissing, and locks herself in the engine room._

_Chapter 15: The Uniposers_

Talwyn sat cradling herself in the corner of the engine room as the others above desperately tried to gain access to the room and get Talwyn out. Tehctar rattled the trapdoor to try to get Ratchet down, but to no avail.

"Why did she lock herself in the engine room anyway?" asked Tehctar, tilting his head towards Ratchet and Sasha. Sasha looked at Ratchet, who looked back at her, motioning for her to say something. She shook her head and motioned for him to say something, so he turned back to Tehctar, who had a sarcastically amazed look on his face.

"Ummm," said Ratchet, trying to think of an excuse. "Well, Talwyn…yeah, Talwyn…she seemed to think…that…ahhh…she had this crazy thought that Sasha and I were in a relationship, but of course we're not." Tehctar stared at him with his arms crossed and an unconvinced look. "Sure….." he said sarcastically, before walking out.

"Nice job, genius," said Sasha, who grabbed an exercise book off the table and a pen and walked into the cockpit. Tehctar was piloting the Unipose towards Warta, which wasn't far away, but still far enough to be out of their sight. Clank sat at the left side of the cockpit, watching the read-outs and checking to make sure everything was clear, while Qwark was teaching Sasha2 about all the different panels and how to use them. Sasha decided to give Clank a break, so she walked up to his seat and placed her left hand on it, while bending down towards him.

"I am willing to take over now if you'd like, Clank," said Sasha. "Thanks," said Clank before popping out of his seat and walking to the dining room. Sasha sat down on the seat and watched all the read-outs, before turning her head to her clone, who smiled before they both went back to their work.

"How long until we get to Warta?" asked Sasha. Tehctar was watching the empty space in front of them, and seemed to be disconnected from the social world. "TEHCTAR!" yelled Sasha, getting Tehctar's attention, who let out a "Hmm?" and looked around, before noticing that Sasha was talking to him. "When did you come in, Sasha?" he asked, with no recollection of what happened around him.

"I gave Clank a break, and then asked you how long until we got to Warta," she said slowly to him, to make sure he'd understand. "Oh, okay," said Tehctar, looking at some of the read-outs closest to him. "About an hour. Until then we might as well just try and get Talwyn out and then assemble our team." He looked to his right, and saw that Sasha2 and Qwark had finished with the lesson and they left, before he immediately turned back to Sasha.

"You're in a relationship with Ratchet, aren't you?" asked Tehctar. Sasha looked bug-eyed at him, before blushing and immediately trying to conceal it as Tehctar smirked at her. "Yeah. We first got together when he saved me from the Tyhrranoids, and we kinda made love that night." Tehctar's eyes were the ones to turn wide as he heard what happened.

"Well," said Tehctar, a little disturbed that Sasha told him about her intimate relationship with Ratchet. "I feel happy that you are together with Ratchet, and personally I prefer Ratchet with you than Talwyn. I'm just a little concerned about Talwyn, and I expect a love triangle to happen soon. I fear that Ratchet will pity Talwyn and lead to the worst." Sasha thought about Ratchet making love to Talwyn and cringed, before deciding to leave, as Ratchet entered the cockpit.

"Hey, it's Mr. Stud," said Tehctar, spinning his chair around to meet Ratchet. "What?" asked Ratchet, sitting down on the seat to the left of him. "Oh, nothing," said Tehctar with a smirk on his face, spinning back around to continue piloting. "So, you do have any plans of getting Talwyn out of the engine room?" he asked, turning his head to look at Ratchet.

"Well, not really, but if she wants to stay in the engine room and not be brave enough to face me, frankly she can stay there for her whole life. I do love Talwyn, but sometimes she is so arrogant and acts so cowardly, when Sasha is the opposite, and I am drawn to her like a magnet," said Ratchet, staring blankly at nothing, thinking about his past life with Talwyn.

"But she was brilliant during the time we had together fighting Tachyon and with the pirates of Merdegraw. She was so smart and so strong, and that was when I loved her the most, over Sasha, hell, even over Angela, even though we never really had an intimate relationship. Angela…I remember that I went out in space to find Angela, and then Talwyn and Qwark joined me, and then the VA captured us and then we met you and we were completely thrown off the track. Hell, even the tracking device is going berserk, because it's always malfunctioning and never stopping."

"How is the tracking device malfunctioning?" curiously asked Tehctar, who was shocked at the name Angela being said. "Well," began Ratchet, who was a little suspicious as to why Tehctar wanted to know. "For some reason, it is either not working at times or otherwise saying that Angela is right next to us, but that's crazy as there is no way she'd be able to get on the ship, let alone hiding on it. I recalibrated it so it wouldn't track me, but it hasn't worked. At first, I thought there was a trick to it, but now I've just given up. But I think that somehow, during this adventure, I'll find Angela soon…I miss her. We had so much fun after defeating the protopet, I wanted to go back to the simple life. In Clank's apartment, fooling around, where universal domination or destruction wasn't much of a common thing. I wish I could be with her again. Apart from Clank, she was my best friend and I love her as a friend. It's a pity she disappeared so suddenly."

"Yeah," said Tehctar, thinking about how great Angela would be to their team. "I'm sure she's closer than you think…"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ratchet, curious as to what Tehctar meant.

"I'm just saying, she might be watching us from an asteroid, or she might be that Master guy who apparently is the leader of the Villainous Alliance, however if she was, I don't know why she'd be evil." Ratchet sighed.

"What's the matter?" asked Tehctar, tilting his head towards Ratchet once again.

"It's just that you remind me of Angela in many ways. You've got a similar personality. Jokey, but still remaining strong and strict. Kind of like one of the teachers at the school on Veldin I went to when I was a little boy." Tehctar looked down in guilt, and then immediately turned the Unipose to auto-pilot, spun around and got up from his chair, walking through the weapons room and into the cubicle, before sitting on the toilet and thinking to himself.

* * *

Ratchet was sick of waiting for Talwyn to resurface, so he decided to get her out by force. He got up from his chair and walked into the dining room, signalling for someone to check the readouts, which Sasha2 and Clank did. He grabbed his new shiny wrench he got from Sara and lifted it high above his head, before slamming it down onto the trapdoor, pushing straight through the wood, and surprising Talwyn, as his furry hand reached through the crack and grabbed the lock, twisting it so it would open and then grabbing the knob, opening the door.

"GO AWAY!" yelled Talwyn, as Ratchet began climbing down the ladder. She grabbed a nearby lead pipe, and tossed it at Ratchet's head, just missing him. Ratchet watched out as he began climbing down more of the ladder, and Talwyn threw more metal bits and even somehow a tomato, which he managed to avoid. He got to the bottom, just as a knife was thrown at Ratchet.

He turned to face Talwyn and saw the knife spinning, and he quickly moved his head to the right, letting the knife mildly cut his giant furry ears. He felt this, and grabbed his ear, yelling at Talwyn for doing that. She sat back down and cried her eyes out, and Ratchet felt half-guilty for yelling at her. "Come up when you're ready," said Ratchet, before climbing back up the ladder and was met by Sasha at the top.

"What happened to your ear?" she asked. Before Ratchet could answer, she had already grabbed a bandage and began wrapping it around his ear. She grabbed his shoulders, and smiled at him, which was returned, and then let him go and walked off into the cockpit. Qwark didn't notice this happening, and was reading the latest issue of another comic book series.

Ratchet ran into the cockpit and saw Sasha2 and Clank busily working with the read-outs, as apparently Warta had just come into sight. Ratchet looked all over through the windows, but could not see Warta anywhere. Tehctar had come back from the bathroom and was piloting the Unipose again, and noticed what Ratchet was doing, and watched as Ratchet turned to him.

"Apparently, Warta is supposed to be in sight, but I can't see it anywhere," said Ratchet, facing Tehctar with his hands on his hips.

"Of course it's in sight," answered Tehctar, pressing a button and watching as a telescope slid out of a panel and immediately pointed at where Warta is. Ratchet looked at Tehctar, who motioned for him to take a look. Ratchet complied, and saw a blank red planet, with a few large buildings easily noticeable.

"So that's Warta?" asked Ratchet, taking his eye away from the telescope. "Yep," replied Tehctar. "I just need to angle the ship to the left and then we should be able to see Warta through the naked eye." Sasha giggled at this comment, and Tehctar and Ratchet turned to face her, and she noticed she being watched. Awkwardly, she turned away from them until they went back to their work.

"Ratchet, you should assemble the team to the dining room, and I'll join you once Warta comes into my sight," said Tehctar. Ratchet complied and left Tehctar, Sasha2 and Clank to their work, and walked into the dining room, where he signalled Sasha and Qwark to assemble as he climbed back down the ladder to comfort Talwyn in the engine room.

The engine room was a rectangular room with a ladder in the middle, and had four superheated steam boilers lining up on each side, leading to a giant closet with an engine powered by battery bots inside attached to the giant exhaust pipes on the back of the ship. Talwyn was opposite to the closet, hiding behind the leftmost boiler towards the back. Ratchet walked up to her, and she looked up at his furry gleaming face.

"Look, Talwyn," said Ratchet, who sat down next to her. "I may have gotten into another relationship with Sasha, but really, I'm just confused. Don't you just hate it when your boyfriend falls in love with another girl, and can't decide who to choose? But, please, do me a favour and don't fight with Sasha, because I want the decision to be easy, but hopefully not too heartbreaking to either of you."

"I just hope you pick me," said Talwyn. "I mean, we were together while fighting Tachyon, and I'm simpler, because Sasha is a part of royalty. Not to mention she's a slut."

"WHAT?" yelled Ratchet. "Did you just Sasha a slut?"

"Yeah. You got a problem?"

"Of course I do! I had sex with her!"

"YOU WHAT?"

"YOU HEARD ME!"

"THAT'S IT! GO WITH SASHA ALL YOU LIKE, I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU REGRET IT!" Talwyn got up from where she was sitting, and climbed up the ladder, before surfacing and seeing Qwark staring at her in shock, and then saw Sasha looking grim over by the kitchen. She stormed over to her and punched her in the forehead, before leaving to the cockpit.

Talwyn straightened herself out, and tried to steady herself and enter the cockpit calmly, hoping that the others didn't hear the yelling. Tehctar had already signalled to Clank and Sasha2 to pretend that they didn't hear anything to make things less complicated. Talwyn calmly entered and noticed that they didn't seem to hear the fighting, and then leaned over the panels and stared through the window, noticing that Warta had just come into sight.

"Okay, everyone, time to assemble our team," said Tehctar, switching the Unipose to autopilot, and leaving to the dining room with the others. He entered the dining room, and saw Ratchet sitting on the kitchen counter with his arm around Sasha's waist, Qwark sitting at the table with his comic book and watched as Talwyn sat on a bed, Sasha2 sat in the corner grimly, and Clank sat at the table with Qwark.

"Okay, who is going to go down to Warta to find that missing component? Do I have any volunteers?" asked Tehctar, in high hopes that Ratchet and Talwyn don't decide to go together.

"I'll go," said Talwyn, sitting on the bed, staring coldly at Ratchet and Sasha. She mouthed the word "slut" to Sasha, and was returned with a look of shock and anger. Tehctar watched this awkwardly, and then returned back to the matter at hand.

"Okay, I think I'll go, if that's okay with everyone," said Tehctar unhappily, and was replied with nods, and then he decided that it should be a three-man team, and hope Ratchet wouldn't be the last person to volunteer. "I think we have one spot left in the party. Any more volunteers?"

Tehctar saw Sasha2 about to say something, when someone out of Tehctar's view said they'll go. Fearfully, he turned and saw Ratchet with his right hand, and Tehctar began to cry on the inside.

"Okay, great. Ratchet, Talwyn and I will be going down to the surface of Warta, while you guys just chill for a while. Hopefully, wherever we go next, Sasha2 will join us to the surface. Hopefully we should be near Warta soon." Talwyn growled at Sasha who growled back at her. Tehctar facepalmed and then remembered to ask the group something.

"So what should we name ourselves?" asked Tehctar to the whole group.

"How about 'The Betrayers'," said Talwyn, sitting in the corner and staring at Ratchet angrily.

"Lets be more serious," said Tehctar. "I think that naming ourselves 'The Resistance' or the 'The Defenders' is too cheesy. We need a name that describes us all uniquely. Everyone started thinking, but could not think up of a name that described them uniquely and wasn't cheesy. BING! BING! BING! The Unipose had made it into orbit of Warta, and the group waited for Tehctar's orders.

"Well, looks like the Unipose has-" began Tehctar before he realised that he had just thought of a name that wasn't cheesy at all and described them uniquely.

"How about 'The Uniposers'?"

* * *

Tehctar awkwardly put on a backpack as Ratchet and Talwyn were preparing while giving cold stares at each other. The other Uniposers had left the room, because they didn't want to be caught in the middle of an argument, and Tehctar had put Sasha2 on "claw duty". Tehctar pulled down the ladder as quickly as he could and began to climb to the top, without looking down.

Talwyn let Ratchet climb up before her, and he made sure that Talwyn wouldn't kick him while going up. She began to climb up too, and saw Ratchet's legs when looking up, reminding her of how great he was. She eventually made it to the top with a cheeky smile on her face, but Ratchet wasn't happy with her.

"What are you smirking at?" asked Ratchet with an angry tone.

"Just you," replied Talwyn while blushing.

"What about me?" he asked with a gentler tone. However, his question was only replied with an hysterical laugh. Ratchet growled and then turned back to the front, as Tehctar began to fire up the engines.

"Sasha2, release the claws," said Tehctar through the Communication Crystal, and Sasha2 was sitting in the cockpit, spinning around on her chair, loving being able to sit on the pilot's seat. She heard the message come through and dizzily managed to press the button that released the claws.

Aphelion lifted up into space and began to charge towards Warta's atmosphere. However, once they began to enter, they realised that there was little atmosphere at all, but the planet was still breathable. Tehctar had checked earlier where they needed to go, and began to level out from their dive and fly to the west. They flew over the bare red planet until they finally found a crater, which looked like a 20c coin from Aphelion.

Tehctar piloted Aphelion down towards the outside of the crater, and stopped just in front of a turquoise alien that looked kind of like a Mimbian, but had tentacles for a mouth, and carried a trident. Tehctar jumped out of the Aphelion with Ratchet and Talwyn, and they slowly approached the alien.

"Are you the ones that Fryg sent to find a component?" said the alien with a deep adolescent voice, kind of a mix between a generic surfer's voice and a generic emo's, and kept a cold but friendly stare on the threesome.

"Yes, we are. Do you know where we could find one?" said Tehctar, standing face to face with the blue alien, trying to make himself look impressive.

"Follow me." The alien began to talk about himself and the surroundings as he entered the crater, where a group of Mimbians were working to build a small colony inside. "My name is Ghig, and right now I am taking you to our oracle, who is a friend of Fryg." His tentacle legs wiggled to push him forward smoothly, as if someone had turned a fan on to blow the tentacles while a pair of legs were really doing the work.

"I am not a friend of Fryg, Ghig," boomed a old wise voice throughout the whole crater, not disturbing the constructors one bit. "I am her colleague."

"Yes, Oracle," said Ghig, bowing down to nothing as the sounds of bees, hammers banging and saws cutting returned to the air. He continued to walk through the overpass, higher than all of the construction below. An arch of light spawned at the end of the crater, looking only big enough for a mouse to fit through, but then getting bigger as they got closer.

To Tehctar's surprise, Ghig turned left and began to walk down a ramp, almost hidden from sight, and he followed, but soon noticed that Ratchet and Talwyn were no longer behind him. He jumped for joy in the air, and quickly caught up with Ghig, who entered a dark black room, which for some reason was able to be visualised perfectly once he entered, like a pair of night-vision goggles had suddenly been placed on his head.

There was an old woman, who looked about 100 years old had grey hair that fell to the floor, and wore an old dress, with a skin-like covering wrapped around her legs. She sat on a red velvet cushion with her back against the wall, supported her old and weak back. She had two guards next to her, who stared straight in front of them and let Ghig and Tehctar in without any resistance at all. Like the voice that boomed through the crater earlier, her voice was weak and raspy, but somehow had no difficulty talking.

"O Great One, I have brought guests…" Ghig noticed that Ratchet and Talwyn were no longer with them. "A guest, actually. He has come to ask you about a component for his tracking device that Fryg sent him."

"Yes, Fryg has told me that a guest would be arriving soon. You may leave, Ghig." Ghig obeyed this command and left the room, checking the construction below, but noticed that Ratchet and Talwyn were above him outside the entrance, remaining silent and cross-armed.

"So, Oracle, do you have the component needed?" asked Tehctar, with high hopes that he asked the question correctly.

"I have all components needed. Please describe to me what DNA you are using to track whoever you are tracking."

"Well, I used the blood of a mutation of a clone of the person we are trying to track."

"That is pretty heavy," said the Oracle, before a blue glow appeared in front of her and a small flat rectangular attachment slowly formed and floated over to Tehctar's hands, landing inside them. He pulled the tracker out and slipped the attachment inside, giving off a reading. It pointed towards the planet known as Rancine, in another sector of the galaxy, and would take about ten hours to reach. Tehctar prepared to leave, but was stopped by the Oracle's voice.

"Would you like to know the prophecy for your future?" she asked. Tehctar turned around and thought for a while, finally accepting that no matter how bad or good his future is, it would be a blessing to know.

"Tell me," he asked informally, but the Oracle understood, and began to say a rhyme.

_Once you finally become__ true,_

_It is already__ the end for you…_

Tehctar shivered as the rhyme finished, and quickly ran out of the small room. He ran back up the ramp and through the overpass, bumping into Ghig along the way, but didn't stop and ran towards the entrance. He burst out of the door, but stopped when he saw Ratchet and Talwyn laying against the outside wall of the crater with their arms crossed.

"So have you guys worked things out yet?" asked Tehctar, who deeply wished that they'd stop fighting.

"Not yet," said Ratchet. "I hope Talwyn can open her mind and stop fighting, because if she did, then I'd give her a second chance. Because I love her, and if she loves me she would stop this fighting, and make things better for both of us." Talwyn started crying, and then uncrossed her arms and ran towards Ratchet, hugging him tightly before letting go and turned to Tehctar.

"Let's go," she said sobbingly, with tears rolling down her cheeks, and she jumped into Aphelion, waiting for Ratchet and Tehctar to get in. Ratchet shrugged his shoulders as Tehctar punched his fists into the air, and they both entered their respective spots in Aphelion, and blasted off again.

* * *

_Once you finally__ become true,_

_It is already the end for you…_

The rhyme haunted Tehctar as Aphelion docked at the Unipose, and he kept telling himself that he already knew that if he showed his true identity, the bandits would kill him, but he wondered why he would ever show his true identity. He was too smart to do something so risky, and there would be no reason to show his true form. But then he realised that after defeating the Scarzare, he might remove his disguise, thinking that it's safe, but then probably gets himself killed.

Aphelion was grabbed by the claws on the ship by Sasha2 who was controlling the claws, and got impatient when Tehctar wouldn't answer her in his trance. The chassis of Aphelion opened and Talwyn began to climb down, as Tehctar sat in his seat, thinking about the future.

"Tehctar, you okay?" asked Ratchet, who was about to start climbing down the ladder. Tehctar woke up from his trance, and nodded to Ratchet, who slowly shook his head as he climbed down the ladder. Tehctar got up from his seat and began to climb down with Ratchet and Talwyn, but could still not keep the rhyme off his mind.

Sasha watched as the door on the ceiling opened up and then began to frown as Talwyn jumped down, and was curiously as to why she was grinning madly, but before she could ask, she had ran past her and into the cockpit. Ratchet was the next one to come down, and she hugged him tightly, before he whispered into her ear about Talwyn. She understood, and decided to leave Ratchet alone until he had made his permanent choice. She just smiled to Tehctar as he came down, and watched as he walked past her, but then stopped and turned around.

"Do you think you could help me with something?" Tehctar asked to Sasha, looking at her with a curious look.

"Well, what can I do?" asked Sasha, locking the door to the cockpit, and motioning for Tehctar to sit on the couch with her.

"Well, on Warta, I was told a prophecy which has been haunting me ever since."

"What is the prophecy?"

"_Once you finally become true, it is already the end for you…"_

"So you think that you will, for some reason, show your true identity and then bandits will kill you?"  
"Yes, but I can't see why I would do something like that. It is illogical!"

"Maybe your motivation to show yourself to the bandits comes from the prophecy you were told. You can't let it get to you, otherwise it will be the cause of your death."

"That seems very plausible. Whenever I get the feeling that the future cannot be rewritten, I'll think of this conversation. Plus, the future is never written until the future becomes the past."

"Cool. By the way, have you found out a way to tell people your true identity?"

"Yes, I have found a way that is safe to use. But I haven't presented it to anyone, because I think it will safer if no-one knew."

"Can you let me keep a secret? I will be willing to know your true identity, and it will help me relax during battle."

"Okay, fine, but you can't tell Ratchet, It would be too unfair to him."

"Unfair?"

"Here, let me show you," said Tehctar, before grabbing a piece of paper off the desk and grabbing a pen, writing a six letter name on it, and showing it to Sasha, making her eyes as wide as a dinner table and surprising her a lot. Sasha nodded, and then took the piece of paper, scrunched it up and threw it in the nearby bin, narrowing missing the bucket and falling on the floor.

Tehctar unlocked the door with a cheeky smile on his face, and walked into the weapons room as Talwyn entered. She sat down on the couch, and noticed the scrunched-up paper outside of the bin. Sasha was still sitting on the sofa, and began reading Qwark's comic book. Talwyn got and grabbed the piece of paper, and was about to throw it in when she saw the first letter of Tehctar's real name.

"What is this?" asked Talwyn as she began to unscrunch the paper against Sasha's sudden protests, and realised that Tehctar had told Sasha his true identity.

"He is a…You slut! You knew and haven't told Ratchet!" yelled Talwyn, as she threw it in the fireplace and Sasha stood up.

"I couldn't tell Ratchet-"

"WHY? BECAUSE YOU DON'T TRUST HIM?"

"NO! YOU IDIOT! IT'S BECAUSE-" Sasha's sentence was cut off as Talwyn tackled Sasha, and began punching her, before being kicked and pushed back on the couch by Sasha, who had blood beginning to stream out of her right nostril. Sasha landed on top of her and began to rip Talwyn's hair out, as Talwyn began to punch Sasha's stomach.

Tehctar, Sasha2, Qwark, Clank and Ratchet all entered the room with **21 hours** remaining, and watched as Talwyn began to spin Sasha around and then drop her. Clank expected Ratchet to break up the fight, but instead just shook his head and left the room, leaving the two girls to rip each other apart…

Chapter 16 Preview

_Sasha began to stir from her sleep, and Tehctar realised that if she saw Ratchet and Talwyn in bed together, she'd go berserk. He picked Qwark up and shook Ratchet and Talwyn, waking them up._

"_Sasha is about to wake up any minute now, get dressed!" he whispered furiously. Talwyn sat bolt upright with the blanket still covering her, but it fell off Ratchet's body, causing the others to look away in disgust._

"_It's fine," said Ratchet calmly. "I'm wearing boxers, just like I did when I went to sleep last night, so Sasha won't notice." Tehctar, Sasha2 and Qwark all turned back calmly as Talwyn grabbed her bra and clipped it back on with revealing any of her body, and then slipped her panties on, before throwing the blanket away, landing in Sasha's face._


	16. Cloaked Infiltration

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_Ratchet manages to break into the engine room and talk to Talwyn, but after she calls Sasha a slut, they don't speak to each other afterwards, and Tehctar learns about Ratchet and Sasha's relationship. Tehctar is stuck with Ratchet and Talwyn on the journey to Warta, where they get the missing component, which points to Rancine, where the Scarzare's base is. However, Tehctar is also told a prophecy in which he reveals his true identity and the bandits kill him. Sasha and Talwyn learn of Tehctar's true identity through code and begin to fight, in which Ratchet breaks up with them both._

_Chapter 16: Cloaked Infiltration_

Ratchet sat unhappily in the chair to the right of the pilot's seat, and Tehctar entered and sat in the pilot's seat, facing Ratchet.

"So I guess you're sick of girls?" asked Tehctar, twiddling his thumbs in his lap.

"Yep. They can never stop fighting. It will be best for them if I left them both," said Ratchet, staring blankly into space. Tehctar turned his chair around, and began tapping some buttons, and the Unipose moved out of orbit once more and flew towards Rancine. Clank entered the room with blood on his antenna, and was panting heavily.

"Ratchet! Ratchet!" said Clank. Ratchet turned around and faced Clank with an annoyed expression on his face. "You have to help break this fight up before necks are broken!"

"Who's blood is that?"

"Ratchet! Why aren't you-it's Sasha's-breaking up this fight?"

"I'm sick of women, Clank. If they want to kill each other that's their own problem."

"COME ON! The Ratchet I knew wouldn't let the women he love get hurt, let alone kill each other!" Ratchet frowned at this retort, and realised that he would be able to win against Clank, and so he got up from his seat and walked with him to the dining room.

"Alright, break it up!" yelled Ratchet as he entered the room. Qwark and Sasha2 watched him and moved out of the way so he could stop the fight. He walked to the pair tackling themselves on the ground, and tried to grab Sasha, but was pushed away.

"STOP IT, I SAID!" This angry remark caused Sasha to roll away from Talwyn in fear, and cause Talwyn to just lay there. Ratchet muttered something before picking Sasha up and grabbing handcuffs from Qwarks "trunk o' junk" and cuffed her to the post that held up the beds. Sasha squirmed around but finally gave up.

"Why are you cuffing me? Talwyn started the fight!" Her protested was ignored by Ratchet, who got another pair of Qwark's handcuffs and chained Talwyn to the fireplace, just as Tehctar entered the room.

"Hey, Qwark," said Ratchet, smiling a little. "Why do you have these handcuffs." Qwark suddenly shot up in fear, and realised that he would have to lie.

"Umm, I..uhhh…keep them to…um….incase I need to catch a criminal…uhhh…and stuff." Tehctar smiled and then realised the true purpose of the handcuffs and left to throw up. Ratchet then grabbed a quiver to place his Modifigun in, and put some spare ammunition in a spare holster.

"We should prepare our weapons and other essentials, such as clean underwear, Qwark, and rest for the 10 hours it takes to get to Rancine. Who's with me?" asked Ratchet, who began to pull out the beds as everyone murmured in agreement. Ratchet done the sleeping arrangements as Talwyn grabbed a gun from the rack Arv kept, and stuffed it into a spare quiver, along with ammunition, her pistol and lipstick in the two spare holsters. Sasha did the same, except she put in a shield which would deflect enemy fire. Clank packed another of Arv's guns, and kept a calculator inside, just in case he needed. Qwark took the last of the guns, along with his comic book, while Sasha2 packed a crossbow and her pistol she used to escape the Scarzare's base. Meanwhile, Tehctar decided it would be best if he stayed in the Unipose and attacked the defenses, aiding the Uniposers along while in the base using the Communication Crystal.

For the ten hours, Ratchet and Clank slept alongside each other, while Talwyn and Sasha2 occupied another bed, Tehctar slept well next to Sasha, while Qwark was alone because of his body odour and snoring habits.

Two hours later, Ratchet felt a pair of hands shaking him, and he opened his eyes, dazed, and rolled over to see Sasha in her pajamas.

"Sasha," whispered Ratchet with a sleep-deprived voice. "What are you doing? We are supposed to be getting sleep so we'll be rested for the attack."

"Follow me," whispered Sasha, who opened the door to the weapons room, and waited for Ratchet to push himself out of the bed and walk unbalanced towards her. She tip-toed through the weapons room and into the cockpit, with Ratchet tagging along obviously annoyed. He reached the cockpit and saw Sasha sitting in the pilot's seat.

"Ratchet, I'm sorry about fighting with Talwyn earlier. It's just because she started the fight, because she thought I didn't trust you, and I just fought back in self-defence." Ratchet walked over to the seat that was to the right of the pilot's seat and sat down, and twisted it around so he faced Sasha.

"Listen, Sasha. It's okay that you fought with Talwyn. I'm over it. I'm glad that you didn't start the fight, because I always knew you were smarter and less aggressive than Talwyn. But, why did Talwyn think that you didn't trust me?" Sasha's eyes turned wide, and then opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it, until she had finally thought of what she was going to say.

"Tehctar thought it was best that you didn't know."

"Didn't know about what?"

"Exactly. I can't tell you. If you love and trust me, you'll know that you will never force me to tell you what Tehctar told me. It's for your own protection." Ratchet sat there thinking for a while, before nodding to Sasha, and having an insincere smile on his face.

"So should we be going back to sleep, now?" asked Ratchet, and was followed by Sasha climbing out of her chair walking over to Ratchet. "Sasha…we can do this after we have defeated the Scarzare." Sasha stopped herself from climbing onto Ratchet and sighed, before leaving the room and going back into her bed. Ratchet did the same, and tried to sleep.

An hour later, Ratchet and Sasha were still awake, thinking about each other.

"Ratchet?" whispered Sasha, pushing herself up and looking at Ratchet's bed, where the Lombax looked like he was asleep.

"Hmmmm?" asked Ratchet, tired and insomniac.

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah." Ratchet opened his eyes, and turned his body, so his head was on the same level as Sasha's. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing. It's just that I can't get to sleep."

"Why?"

"I've been thinking…about you…and the infiltration. I'm worried that one of us might not make it."

"Don't worry. I'll protect you with my life."

"Then why can't you get to sleep?"

"I've been thinking about you and Talwyn, and I'm wondering if you'll get along…"

"I hope we do. I will, but I'm sure if Talwyn will agree."

"Still, I'm sure she won't betray you or anything while fighting the Scarzare…"

"Yeah!" She quickly kissed Ratchet on the lips. "Good night, Ratchet."

"Good night." Ratchet rolled back over, and tucked into his bed, and fell asleep almost immediately, but Sasha still had a little trouble, but managed to sleep in about ten minutes.

* * *

"Ratchet, wake up!"

It was five hours into the sleeping time, and Talwyn had woken up to apologise to Ratchet. "I need to talk to you!" She whispered to him in a soft voice, until Ratchet started moving and opened his eyes to see Talwyn standing behind his head, waking him up.  
"Talwyn," said Ratchet, yawning. "I'm so tired and I want to rest, and you should be getting some sleep too."

"Please, Ratchet," whispered Talwyn with her hands clamped together. "This will only take five minutes." Ratchet annoyingly got out of the bed and followed Talwyn to the cockpit, repeating what happened earlier. Once Ratchet made it into the cockpit, Talwyn was sitting on the pilot's seat facing him.

"I want to apologise for my attitude lately. I've been easily aggravated, and I wish it didn't happen. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me, and forget that it ever happened? You know what girls are like!" Ratchet laughed at this last sentence, and approached Talwyn, bent over, and swished her hair back before kissing her romantically on the lips. Talwyn blushed uncontrollably, and was taken over by her libido.

She slowly wrapped her arms around Ratchet and pushed him closer, combining them into an item of passion. Ratchet let go of the kiss, before leaning back in immediately to kiss her multiple times, before trailing of towards her neck. Talwyn giggled as Ratchet tickled her neck with his lips, and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes in excitement.

Ratchet picked her up, and sat on the pilot's seat, resting Talwyn on his lap, who fell into his arms in bliss. She regained her senses, and began to kiss Ratchet's chest, before making her way up to his lips. Ratchet wrapped his arms back around her, slowly moving his hand down and then up her shirt, unclipping her bra, ready to set off on another adventure.

After the ten hours were up, Tehctar stood next to Ratchet's and the unoccupied bed between Ratchet and Clank with a can of soda in his hand, and a horrified look on his face. Qwark didn't notice what Tehctar was looking at and had walked into the cockpit, and when he came back, he went to see what Tehctar was staring at, and joined his horrified expression.

Ratchet and Talwyn were naked in the two beds, covered by a single green wool blanket, thankfully covering everything up to the neck. Clank was still asleep next to the lovers, and when he woke up, he rolled over blindly and hugged Talwyn, which horrified the two even more. Clank opened his eyes and noticed what he was doing, slowly moving away before climbing out of the bed and running away, not grabbing Qwark or Tehctar's attention at all.

Sasha2 looked at Qwark and Tehctar's statue-like pose with a confused expression, and waved her hand in front of Tehctar's face, but not getting a response. She decided to punch Tehctar, which knocked him over and into Qwark, released him from the freeze and quickly regained his balance as Qwark fell over, only unfreezing when he hit the ground.

Sasha began to stir from her sleep, and Tehctar realised that if she saw Ratchet and Talwyn in bed together, she'd go berserk. He picked Qwark up and shook Ratchet and Talwyn, waking them up.

"Sasha is about to wake up any minute now, get dressed!" he whispered furiously. Talwyn sat bolt upright with the blanket still covering her, but it fell off Ratchet's body, causing the others to look away in disgust.

"It's fine," said Ratchet calmly. "I'm wearing boxers, just like I did when I went to sleep last night, so Sasha won't notice." Tehctar, Sasha2 and Qwark all turned back calmly as Talwyn grabbed her bra and clipped it back on with revealing any of her body, and then slipped her panties on, before throwing the blanket away, landing in Sasha's face.

Sasha opened her eyes and noticed the blanket over her face, and sat upright and began to slowly throw it off her face. She turned around and saw Ratchet sitting on the side of his bed in his boxers, and Talwyn fully dressed in her pajamas, blowing her hair with the hairdryer.

Tehctar and Qwark lightly went "phew" before getting themselves dressed in their clothes and Qwark put on his quiver, while Tehctar checked the Unipose's systems, before noticing Rancine in the distance and preparing to fire whatever ammunition and weaponry the Unipose had.

The rest of the Uniposers put on their quivers and prepared to enter Rancine, with Ratchet, Clank, Talwyn and Qwark sitting in Aphelion, waiting to enter the atmosphere, while Tehctar, Sasha and Sasha2 all sat controlling the Unipose from inside. The Unipose slowly made it's way into the orbit, and Tehctar turned his Communication Crystal.

"Get ready to launch, Ratchet." Ratchet prepared his hand to flick the switch that fired up the engines, as Tehctar piloted the Unipose straight into the ozone layer of Rancine, easily breaking through it, past the clouds and gaining the sight of grey mountains, surrounding a gigantic spider-web-like base, stretching over and around the mountains, with turrets covering the roofs.

"That's the base," said Sasha2, getting extremely nervous of fighting her father. Her heart pounded like the drums of a hardcore rock song and her body shivered like she was buck naked on the top of a freezing mountain, covered in snow. She suddenly realised that she wasn't just a mutation, and was actually a real person, with feelings and everything a person has. She was now less determined to kill her father, but told herself that she needed to, to keep Tehctar safe.

"Are you okay, Sasha2?" Sasha2 realised that Tehctar was staring at her with concern, turning away from the steering wheel after placing the Unipose behind the mountains, out of the base defence's sight, waiting for their bodies to get ready to fight for their life. Sasha2 nodded, but kept her eyes staring ahead into the atmosphere. Tehctar thought that it was either victory or "boned".

He looked into the atmosphere, and without thinking, turned on the radio, playing a slow cold motivational song, with transmitted through both of the cockpits, and made everyone think about what was going to happen once they came into view. They all relaxed, and waited patiently for their bodies to win the fight against breaking down.

Ratchet realised that he was helping his friend from being killed, a friend who he didn't know, and that Sasha and Talwyn both knew who Tehctar really was. Even if he did decide to help Tehctar in destroying the Scarzare and saving his life, Tehctar's life could be taken, making the infiltration worthless, and causing more pain than happiness. But he knew, deep down, that he trusted whoever was inside the shell that was the Cazarean boy, Tehctar.

Clank, Talwyn and Qwark all realised that they agreed to help something they didn't know, along because they thought they knew what Ratchet was doing. But they knew that they were risking their lives, for no galactic gain at all, just to help one person. Talwyn knew that she had to help Tehctar, because Ratchet didn't realise that he trusted the person behind Tehctar. A good person.

Sasha realised that she just piled in to help Ratchet, who was helping this strange person, but didn't even realise that the person inside was someone that Ratchet would have to protect and help. If Ratchet started getting doubts, she told herself that if he left Tehctar to die, once he figured out who Tehctar was, he would be heartbroken.

"Ratchet, are you ready?" asked Tehctar, tensing his body to get ready to fly straight into the eye of the storm. Ratchet stared out of the window for a few seconds, before Clank hit him, getting his attention, and he realised that Tehctar asked him a question. He looked at the other three, and they nodded.

"We are ready." Tehctar looked at Sasha and Sasha2, and they nodded too. The song ended, and was followed by hardcore battle music. Tehctar smiled manically. He boosted the engines of the Unipose, coming out from behind the mountain like a small cloud, and immediately twisted to the right, facing the nose in front of the base. The turrets prepared to fire, but Tehctar activated the cloaking device, before swerving a little to the right, losing the sight of the turrets, confusing the operators.

"I can handle it from here, girls. Get in the Aphelion before it's too late." Sasha and Sasha2 nodded as Tehctar smoothly controlled the Unipose, preparing to fire off two rockets. They ran to the dining room, and Sasha opened the door on the ceiling and pulled down the ladder, letting Sasha2 climb up and opened the door at the top of the Unipose, followed by Sasha, and they squashed into the Aphelion one by one.

Tehctar pressed a button to the far right of him, and a panel shot up to Tehctar's eye height, and covered his eyes, wrapping a strap behind his head. He looked around, and the panel's targeting system followed. He eventually found one of the main four turrets on top of the four giant rooms next to four of the mountains surrounding the base, on the north, south, east and west sides. The turrets were gigantic and hemispherical, and had space for one man to control them from the inside, and two giant barrels, able to be individually controlled, but in this case, they were controlled as one.

He only found the West Cannon and locked onto to it for future attacking. He opened the case with the rocket deployment button inside, and pressed it, releasing both rockets on the side of the Unipose's cannons and they seeked in a straight line to the turret, but the turret fired twice, hitting the two rockets, before shooting another bolt, hitting the top wing of the Unipose, lightly burning the metal. Tehctar realised that cloaking device didn't work on the four Cannons.

* * *

The Unipose swerved to the right, avoiding the West Cannon's fire, while the targeting panel slowly retracted back into the system. The rockets reloaded, ready to be launched, but Tehctar decided to use the Unipose's laser cannons, which had unlimited ammunition, due to being powered by the IEFC. He turned the Unipose around, still avoiding the fire of West Cannon, occasionally tapping the bottom two wings, causing minimal damage to the Unipose altogether.

He fired the laser cannons, which rapidly shot out yellow bolts, which looked like straight lines, and mostly missed the turret, but hit the base a few times, and a lucky shot hit the left barrel, bending it upwards a little. As he passed the turret to get ready to turn around again, the left barrel accidentally fired a large green bolt, which if it wasn't bent would miss the Unipose, but hit it instead, pushing it to the left.

Tehctar quickly manouevred the Unipose upwards, so the rest of the fire from the West Cannon would miss, and then continued swerving around to come around to have a third attack on the turret. He noticed as he came around that the other Cannons tried firing at the Unipose, but failed as the bolts that were shot out disintegrated over time, and couldn't reach the Unipose.

He came around once more, and fired the two rockets that reloaded at the West Cannon, but of course, the turret blasted them out of the sky. Ratchet miraculously decided to take the matters into his own hands, and fired an aqua heat seeking energy bullet which hit the base of the turret, bending the metal inwards and bumping the operator, causing the turret to flail around blindly.

"Thanks, Ratchet," said Tehctar, who proceeded to fire more lasers at the base of the West Cannon, pushing the operator even more and giving Tehctar enough time to reload the rockets and turn around again. By the time the operator had recovered and he spotted the Unipose again, a rocket came close up into his view and smashed the right barrel apart before he could counter, but unfortunately the other rocket missed and hit the mountain.

The operator inside the West Cannon had to guess where the left barrel would fire and blindly fired aggressively as the Unipose passed again, skinning a tiny bit of metal off the bottom-right wing of the Unipose. It caused so much minimal damage that the Uniposers didn't even know that the Unipose had been hit. Meanwhile, up in Aphelion, the six remaining Uniposers were watching the excitement while eating popcorn supplied by Qwark in his "trunk o' junk".

The Unipose swerved around again, and Tehctar kept avoiding the awkwardly shot green bolts from the left barrel of the West Cannon, and he managed to fire some more lasers, which hit the left barrel and bent it backwards, facing the turret. Because the operator was trigger-happy and kept firing no matter what, before he realised what had happened to the barrel, he fired a bolt. It quickly travelled through the remaining barrel, and burst out, and the operator was heard screaming as the West Cannon burst into a shower of debris and fireworks.

The Uniposers all cheered as the Unipose passed the now destroyed turret and the smaller defences which couldn't see the Unipose where confused the whole time as to what the Cannons were firing at and how they seeming got destroyed by nothing. Tehctar continued to the South Cannon and surprisingly flew straight upwards into the sky, hiding in the clouds before escaping behind the mountains and managed to target the South Cannon from behind as he was still high above the mountains.

Tehctar fired the two rockets and before the South Cannon could see what was happening, the two rockets hit, but instead of destroying the turret, it blew the protective armour off, revealing the Mimbian soldier in amongst screens, controls and the two smaller barrels, now uncovered from their shell. The operator looked up and saw the sky, and realised that Unipose was heading straight for him. He turned the turret and aimed it up to the Unipose, blasting at it with all his strength and bullets left.

One hit the Unipose, scraping the side of it knocking it out of course and seemingly into the mountain. The operator waited for a bang, but got none. He sat there for a while thinking, before hearing a whirring noise. He slowly turned around in terror and saw the laser cannons of the Unipose pointing straight at him. He yelled in a terrifying voice as the two laser cannons fired their lasers and hit the operator immediately, blowing up the remains of the South Cannon.

The other Uniposers were surprised at how easily the South Cannon was taking taken down, and cheered as Tehctar span the Unipose in a spiral motion in excitement and victory, but caused Qwark to feel nauseated and spill some of his popcorn. Sasha steadied him as the Unipose blasted towards the East Cannon, and Tehctar took the inattentive operator to his advantage.

The operator was eating a chocolate bar when the computer told him that a ship was coming close. He got back on the turret and pointed it towards the Unipose, but froze when he noticed it right in his face, and he thought that it would crash into him, but instead pulled up at he last, and he sighed in relief, but noticed that the Unipose was firing it's laser cannons at it, damaging some of the protective armour that covered the East Cannon.

Tehctar leveled the Unipose just before it hit the East Cannon again, but accidentally mis-timed and the bottom-left wing hit it, damaging the Unipose a little but also cutting a hole in the armor of the turret. The Unipose turned left avoiding the enemy fire, before quickly switching around and firing two rockets at the turret, with it destroying one, but missing the second rocket, which failed to do any bad damage and hit the side of the base.

The Unipose stayed a distance from the East Cannon, flying back and forth avoiding the bolts but wasn't able to turn and have an attack on the turret. Tehctar tried firing rockets, but the operator of the turret was smart and quickly took out the rockets and continued firing, before Tehctar could turn and make damage. Tehctar got impatient and turned towards the turret, rapidly firing the laser cannon at it.

Tehctar was sadly making a bad risk and even though he got some more shots on the East Cannon, the operator fired a charged bolt at the Unipose, creating a gaping hole in the weapons room. Tehctar quickly locked all the doors and turned the auto-pilot on, directing it to avoid all enemy fire, while he tied a strengthened rope to the panels and walked slowly to the weapons room.

Tehctar opened the door and quickly got sucked into the room and was about to fly out of the ship, but the rope stopped him. He shielded himself from the lightweight objects being flung out of the hole in the ship, and he managed to grab the hole-repair tape before it too fell out. He pulled out a strip and stuck it across the hole, magically turning to fixed metal that blended with it's damaged surroundings, and less lightweights were flung out. He kept sticking more and more on until the hole was fully repaired, and replaced by a solid steel wall.

Tehctar ran back into the cockpit, and unlocked all the doors again, before pulling out of auto-pilot and continuing to battle against the East Cannon. The operator was shocked at how the hole in the Unipose was repaired, but didn't lose focus in fighting Tehctar. The Unipose flew to the right of the turret, keeping it's distance, before turning towards it and slithering like a snake, avoiding the enemy's bolts, and then lifted upwards, locking it's cockpit towards the turret while it's tail moved freely.

Tehctar released two rockets, and the operator didn't have enough time to move the East Cannon up, and the rockets hit the two barrels, but surprising stuck themselves inside without blowing up. The operator didn't realise this, and thought the rockets missed, so he fired two bolts out of the barrels, hitting the two rockets and blowing them up along with the turret, and the operator didn't even have enough time to realise what happened.

The Uniposers once again cheered as the dead body of the operator flung up into the sky, before painfully hitting the mount of the East Cannon and falling down, gruesomely ripping his head off when he hit the tunnel and falling into the ocean below, drowning in an ocean of water and debris. Tehctar decided to surprise the North Cannon and rocket towards it at an extreme speed, slowing down and manoeuvring out of the way just before the turret fired.

He twirled the Unipose upside-down and turned it around at the same time, before flipping back up and firing the laser cannons at the North Cannon. They hit and burned the mounting on the barrels causing them to droop down a bit, so that they couldn't point upwards. The operator was smart and quickly repaired the mounting before the Unipose could fly above the turret and destroy it.

The Unipose pointed back down at the North Cannon and fired two rockets, but Tehctar was surprised when he saw the turret able to point upwards again, and the rockets were blown apart in mid-flight. Tehctar pulled up and passed the turret, narrowly avoiding some of the fire.

"Ratchet, I need you to "surprise" the North Cannon, if you know what I mean," said Tehctar into the Communication Crystal, as the Unipose turned around to give another attack. Ratchet fired another aqua energy bolt from Aphelion, and watched as the turret suddenly released a clear shield which looked like a bubble, and the energy bolt dissipated upon entry.

Tehctar cursed and drifted slightly to the right, before turning left and hiding behind the mountains. He set up a system in which he fires off six rockets and they each come around the mountain in pairs - left, right and above. He fired off the first two rockets which rounded the mountain immediately, but the North Cannon had enough time to destroy them.

He decided to make a fool-proof strategy where he let the rockets drift in the air for a while until the rocket launchers reloaded and send the four rockets from two directions at the same time. He fired the next two rockets which circled around behind the mountain until the launchers reloaded. Tehctar fired them and the two already-launched rockets rounded the mountain on the right side while the others did the same, instead going over the mountain.

The North Cannon saw the right side rockets and blasted them out of the sky, before realising that two more had already come over the mountain and Tehctar pressed the button to destroy them mid-air and the explosion caused the shield to fail and leave the turret vulnerable. The Unipose followed the two rockets over the mountain and began to diagonally go down the mountain like a skier, avoiding the metaphorical rocks being shot out of the barrel.

Tehctar fired more lasers at the North Cannon while avoiding it's fire, and managed to damage the right barrel temporarily by firing a laser inside the barrel, disconnecting the controls. The operator told the computer inside the turret to begin repairing the right barrel as he kept aiming at the Unipose. Tehctar flew the Unipose away from the turret, getting ready for another attack.

The North Cannon fired a lucky shot out of the left barrel, hitting the IEFC, causing it to leak badly, and suddenly the Unipose began to fall towards the ocean and floating base..

* * *

Ratchet saw this happen, and other the screams of Sasha, Sasha2, Talwyn and Qwark, he boosted Aphelion's engines to maximum and just before the Unipose hit the water, Aphelion's engines managed to kept the Unipose level. Tehctar looked up from his brace position, and saw that miraculously the Unipose was still in the air. He turned the ship to auto-pilot, flying out of the North Cannon's fire.

Tehctar opened the panels, and saw the IEFC uninstalled and leaking, so he ran back into the weapons room and grabbed the hole-repairing tape. He ran back into the cockpit and wrapped the tape around the IEFC, and the tape suddenly turned into the rough surface of the IEFC and repaired it. Tehctar continued to reinstall the Intensive Environmental Fuel Core, but the Aphelion was slowly running of power in the engines.

Ratchet was forced to lower the power of the engines, causing the nose of the Unipose to droop a bit, flying the Unipose downwards. The IEFC was fully installed and functioning just before the Unipose hit the Scarzare's base. The Unipose spontaneously lifted upwards as Tehctar took back control of it and flew upwards, and then turned back towards the North Cannon, which was waiting for them patiently.

Tehctar decided to go all guns blazing by releasing the two rockets ready to launch and firing all the lasers he could use as fast as he could. The North Cannon desperately shot at the two rockets destroying them, and then focused it's aim on the kamikaze Unipose. It locked on to it, and charged up a bolt, before exploding as the lasers managed to burn their way threw the circuitry and cause the fuel to leak and ignite, blowing up the last of the four Cannons.

The Unipose proceeded to the centre, and Aphelion was released from the claws and recharged it's fuel, and flew to the centre to land there. However, once Aphelion got close to the hangar, a gigantic observatory-like turret lifted out of the top, firing at the now visible Aphelion, along with the other turrets on the base which could it.

"Ratchet! Keep avoiding the fire while I take out the main turret that just spawned!" Tehctar reloaded some more rockets, and fired them at the turret, damaging it a bit and attracting the turret attention. It searched around for the attacker as Aphelion flew towards it and fired an energy bolt at it, once again distracting it, making good for a strategy.

The Unipose turned around to fire lasers at the main turret, damaging the base and causing the computer to overload, and it started running scenarios, leaving it vulnerable to enemy attacks. Tehctar decided to ignore it, and fire rockets and lasers at the small defense turrets near Aphelion, destroying many of them and leaving Aphelion less vulnerable to enemy fire.

The computer-controlled turret recovered and surprisingly began firing at the Unipose, and Tehctar guessed that the most likely scenario the computer could come up with was a cloaked attacker, which it countered. Tehctar piloted the Unipose past the turret, allowing Aphelion to fire at it again, causing some even more damage to it. It was again distracted and tried to get rid of the smaller, easier target.

Tehctar fired another rocket and it impacted on the main turret of the complex, destroying it. Aphelion was in the clear and was able to land at the hangar. Ratchet jumped out of Aphelion, and deployed a Windy Shield, blocking the fire of the Mimbian soldiers inside the hangar. Ratchet pulled out his Modifi-gun, as Talwyn, Sasha, Clank and Qwark all took their guns from the Unipose and Sasha2 used her pistol.

Tehctar remained in the Unipose alone, firing at all of the turrets and ships shielding the base, and managed to flawlessly confuse the defenses with the cloaking device, and had destroyed half of the defenses already. A single Mimbian soldier controlling a tiny turret desperately fired a tiny energy bolt which (with a one in a million chance), travelled through the recently fired rocket barrel and got out of the way just before hitting the reloading rocket. It made its way blindly through the Unipose systems and unfortunately hit the cloaking device, making the Unipose visible to the station's defenses.

Chapter 17 Preview

_Tehctar tried to find his way back to where the other Uniposers where, but still couldn't find them, and blindly entered a dark room. Drek, Vox, Otto, Tachyon and Nefarious all sat cradled in prison cells, sad that even with their combined forces, they were defeated twice._

"_THE VILLAINOUS ALLIANCE?" yelled Tehctar getting the villains attention. "What are you doing here?" The VA remained quiet, and went back to their sulking, not wanting to talk to someone who defeated them. Tehctar shook his head and was about to left, when in the corner of his eye he caught sight of Master, hooked up to a computer inside a tank filled with liquid, and preventing him from shape-shifting._


	17. A Cloned Mistake

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_In the middle of the ten sleeping hours it took to get to Rancine, Talwyn wakes Ratchet up and they end up making love. Tehctar helps Sasha avoid noticing, and they arrive at Rancine. At the base, they are met by four Cannons that can see through the cloaking device, and tries to destroy the Unipose. Tehctar manages to defeat them with the help of Ratchet, and Aphelion tries to land, but a turret that spawns above hangar bars them. They manage to defeat the turret with minimal damage and Aphelion finally lands at the Scarzare's base…_

_Chapter 17: A Cloned Mistake_

Sasha2 fired the last shot from her pistol as the last soldier in the hangar fell to the ground trying to make his way into a fighter, which were sleek, orange and shaped like a T. A few had managed to take off, but they didn't bother fighting the Uniposers and just fled the base in fear. Sasha2 placed her pistol in her holster and jogged over to the door to try and unlock it, after a single red-dressed commander in the hangar managed to lock all the doors in the base before he was shot down.

The other Uniposers followed her, but slowly as to make sure some soldiers weren't playing dead or being injured. Talwyn was extremely cautious as she was the last one to crowd around Sasha2, who by the time she got their was stuck completely. Clank noticed Sasha2 trying to use her cards inside her wallet to fill a keycard slip, but none worked. He then turned around thinking, and saw in the corner of his eye a card slipping out of a dead soldier's back pocket.

Clank tugged on Ratchet's pants, and he turned around seeing Clank run over to the soldier and pull the card out of his pocket, holding it up so Ratchet could see it. Ratchet looked at the card and then noticed the soldier's hand creeping towards Clank's leg, but before Ratchet could yell anything, Clank had been grabbed and his leg was torn off, before being shot by three bullets from Ratchet's Modifigun. Ratchet ran over to his best friend, grabbing everyone's attention, who gasped at the sight of Clank without a leg.

"Damn it!" yelled Ratchet, picking up Clank's leg and inspecting it.

"What?" asked Clank, who was calmly sitting upright on the dead soldier's body as if nothing happened.

"I can't repair you until we get back on the Unipose, but its up there fighting and we need to find the Scarzare as soon as possible."

"Then let's go back to the old days."

"What?"

"Remember when you used to carry me on your back and I'd use the Heli-Pack or Thruster-Pack?"

"Yeah…"

"Let's do that again."

"LET'S!" cheered Ratchet, before stuffing Clank's leg into the spare holster and placing Clank just above his quiver, before walking to the door with the keycard. The Uniposers moved out of the way so Ratchet could approach the door, and slid the keycard in. The door slid open and were met with a squad of olive-dressed soldiers.

Meanwhile, Tehctar inside the Unipose tried desperately to restarted the cloaking device, but this instead made the Unipose even more damaged than before. He gave up and tried to trick out some manouevres, managing to ward off a little damage, before flying in between the two mountains at the north-east side and stopping mid-air behind the east mountain.

He grabbed the good ol' hole-repairing tape and quickly ducked around the Unipose, fixing any hole that had made it's way inside, like a giant one that had smashed its way through the fireplace, dismantling the bricks that made it. He then decided to go outside to repair the Unipose, so Tehctar opened the door at the cockpit and then grabbed an extremely long rope and tied it to the panels, before climbing his way up onto the standable platform above the door.

Tehctar continued to climb up and up until he reached the top, where he decided to test the tape on one the wounds taken which only scraped away a bit of metal. He ripped the tape off and stuck it over the small burn, and surprising the tape turned to metal and fixed the damage. He continued to strip tape over every wound, before making his way to the claws that held Aphelion and saw that a bit of one of them was torn away, so he wrapped the tape around, fixing it in seconds.

After finishing repairing the damage to the top wing of the Unipose, he wondered how he would get under the ship and fix the two bottom wings without falling way down until the rope stopped. He walked back and forth thinking, before mis-stepping and falling off the side, but landed butt-first on bottom-right wing, and grabbed the excess rope falling before he slid off.

He carefully let out some rope and slid down a little, grabbing it tightly so he would stop sliding, before repeating this a few times and finally reaching the part where the earlier battle had caused the end of the wing to come off. He tried wrapping the tape around in a shape that looked like the end of the wing, and the tape magically fixed it. He found no way of getting back up to the top, so he jumped off the wing, and was soon stopped by the rope.

Tehctar began climbing it until he reached the door, and then climbed his way back to the top and repeating what he did earlier on the other side, fixing it too, before repeating the procedure one more time to get back in the Unipose. He boosted the engines back up to a fast speed and then re-entered the battlefield from the south-east entrance, seemingly fully repaired.

However, to Tehctar's surprise, once he re-entered, the turrets were all lifted up by an engine attached to it, and were able to fly around to pick of Tehctar better. All he saw was hundreds of flying turrets suddenly shooting towards him in a bunch, and he decided to go crazy. He boosted the Unipose's engines to maximum power and plowed through the middle of the bunch, destroying about half of the remaining turrets and damaging the Unipose very little.

Ratchet and Qwark entered the room filled with soldiers before noticing they were there and quickly ducked behind two broken desks before they were shot. The rest of the Uniposers also jumped out of the way and Sasha and her counterpart lined themselves up against the door and began to battle, while Talwyn remained waiting, occasionally laying on the floor and shooting the soldiers from there.

Ratchet motioned for Qwark to jump up at the same time, and tensed themselves, before ducking up and shooting wildly at the group of soldiers, killing most of them, leaving about four still shooting. The room they had entered was a square-shaped room, with a little doorway into the hangar, with two desks on both side for signing a pilot out, but in this case they were cover for the battle.

One soldier backed themselves up against the bottom wall (from the Uniposers' perspective) so Ratchet and Qwark couldn't see them. He quickly ducked behind Qwark's cover and slowly inched upwards, pointing his gun at where Qwark would be once he reached the top. Ratchet saw the helmet of him moving up and quickly turned away from the three other soldiers and shot the attacking one in the head.

"Thanks, little buddy," said Qwark, before realising that he could do something to defeat the two other soldiers, who were cowering behind cover with their guns pointed at the two tables. "Sasha2! Take my position while I get something out of Aphelion, okay?" Qwark crawled back into the hangar, while Sasha2 moved to his position and Talwyn finally got a chance to be a part of the action, by lining herself up against the doorway.

Sasha2 aimed her pistol up and shot the pistol that was pointing at them from the soldier of the left, but a shot was also fired from the other pistol, nicking Sasha2 in the shoulder, making her weak and unable to battle.

She tried to get up, but Ratchet slid over to her side and kept her down, so she'd have enough strength to walk. He saw the soldier trying to pick up his dropped pistol and shot him in the torso, making him fall to the ground dead. Ratchet was shot by the two remaining soldiers, with their fire hitting the Windy Shield, but the shield didn't have enough power to blow the bullets away and they hit, disabling it.

Sasha and Talwyn kept trying to shoot the last soldier left, but stopped and gaped horrified at Qwark, who pushed them out of the way, and walked towards the soldier…dressed as Nurse Shannon! He kept doing the sexy walk until he pulled the soldier up to his face, who was afraid that the Uniposers were going to kill him, before was lost in Qwark's trance. He took this opportunity to kick the soldier in the crotch, making him fall to the ground in pain, and he then took the gun out of his quiver and shot the soldier.

"Let's go!" he yelled, before running to the door to the right of the room (from Ratchet's perspective), undressing from his costume, as everyone suddenly snapped out of their horrible images and followed him to the door. Sasha2 managed to get and walk weakly as Ratchet threw Qwark the keycard and placed it in the slot, before the door opened into a grey empty hallway, which turned left at the corner.

They carefully turned the corner and looked around, seeing if there were any soldiers hiding. They made their way to the middle of the hallway, when four closet doors on the sides opened and four soldiers ran out, aiming at the Uniposers, but didn't realise that they were walking towards each other. The four soldiers were about to fire, when they bumped into each other and fell to the ground, before Talwyn and Sasha whipped out their guns and shot the lot of them, gangster style.

Ratchet nodded to them in approval as they put their guns away, and Ratchet took the keycard back from Qwark and placed it in the slot at the next door, opening it. The next room was a locker room filled with olive soldiers, who was distracted by the door opening, and then scrambled for their guns. Ratchet quickly locked the door again as bullets fired and hit the closed metal door, rebounding and killing unlucky soldiers that got in the way.

Ratchet turned around to the other Uniposers with wide-eyes. "How are we going to get through that?"

* * *

The Unipose travelled along a long stretch of the base, facing downwards and shooting all the still stationary turrets on the top. The other Uniposers felt the base shake a little as the Unipose's lasers hit it, and Tehctar eventually pulled the ship up and continued avoiding the flying turrets fire. A squad of three chased the Unipose and shot at its engines, always going wherever it went.

Tehctar tried to outmanoeuvre them but they just kept copying them, and eventually he began to boost really fast, but the turrets kept up, which was great according to his plan. Just before hitting the mountain he stopped in his tracks, making Tehctar feel a little ill from the body movement, but gave the turrets the surprise they needed to slow their reaction time and hit the back of the Unipose, before the damaged rockets inside flew them towards the mountain.

Tehctar turned the Unipose around and shot down another passing turret, while only getting a holes peeking through the Unipose, causing little damage to the inside. He proceeded to try and fire rockets at the remaining turrets in the sky, but they all started circling around the Unipose vertically and he couldn't find a way to shoot them down.

Frustrated, he blindly fired rockets that tracked two of the turrets and made them explode, along with the rocket itself, and cause shrapnel to shoot through the hull of the Unipose and hit the engine, causing it to puff smoke. Tehctar realised he was falling towards the base, and quickly tried to pilot it to the nearest hangar, which was a few tunnels away from where Aphelion land.

The Unipose plummeted, crashing through a chunk of the roof of the hangar, hitting the ground nose-first before flipping on it's back and slowing down, and eventually rested after the momentum caused the nose to slam into the ground. It took a chunk of a few fighters with it, but thankfully the hangar was empty as all the soldiers were distracted by the other Uniposers.

Tehctar grabbed the side of his pilot's seat as blood was running down his cheek, to prevent him from sliding down to the door. His head ached verily and he managed to weakly climb into his seat and looked through the cracked window. The Unipose had landed in the hangar a few inches away from the big horizontally rectangular white door which let to "who-knows-where?" and many fighters were crunched on the side, either destroyed or angled by the Unipose's crash.

Tehctar "spun" the chair towards the door, even though the gravity made it do that already, and he carefully plumped out of the chair, sliding down quickly and hitting the wall hard, hurting his weak legs even more. He desperately made his way to the door, which was half buried in the ground, and crawled out, before slowly standing up and walking over to the huge white door, but found that was locked.

He banged on the door in frustration, and then saw it get opened by two olive soldiers.

"Intruder!" the one on the left yelled.

"Please, no!" yelled Tehctar in agony. "Help me." He fell to the ground in pain, and the two soldiers looked at each other, and shrugged before picking him up and holding him in between them and they walked into the straight hallway together, shutting the door behind them. Tehctar waited until they dropped him and then swung his arms at their "weak spots", and they fell to the ground in pain.

He stomped on them both, and then took their wallets, which contained ID and a keycard, and then took the uniform they had, along with gloves they wore for fun so no-one would notice his skin. He put them on and stomped on the two soldiers one more time, before hiding them in the side closets, and locking them in. Tehctar walked to the door with the keycard in his hand and opened it, seeing a room full of soldiers and lockers.

The soldiers were all pointing their guns at the door to the right of him, and they seemed to be waiting for someone to come through the door. He looked down at his belt, with his head still hurting, and saw a keychain, with only one key on it. It read the number "74" and Tehctar realised that it was the number of his locker, as the lockers were the only thing in the complex that used key locks.

He awkwardly walked over to his locker, but nobody noticed him as they were all concentrating on the door. He stuck the key into locker "74" and opened, revealing a photo of a beautiful Mimbian woman in a frame, a pair of swimming trunks, a Saw Blaster and a long rocket-shaped trophy that had the inscription:

**Vicka**

**Year 9 Model Rocket Planet Champion**

**Awarded for his excellent work in launching a rocket that travelled from Dewar to Grokley without running out of fuel or crashing.**

He closed the locker and took the key out, before noticing that all the soldiers were still waiting for someone to come in. He wanted to know what was going on, and saw a soldier in yellow attire to the left of him, also waiting with the others.

"Hey," said Tehctar, getting the soldiers attention. "What are you other soldiers waiting for, sir?" The soldier turned back to the door before speaking.

"We saw the intruders who somehow got past our turrets open the door and quickly close it because we were on the other side. They only have the hangar to go to, but that won't be much help due to the turrets that will shoot them down upon escape."

"Maybe I could talk to them, and then maybe get their trust and ambush them." The soldier turned back to him.

"That's a good idea, however, they may shoot on sight, even if you go with your hands up."

"I've dealt with these sort of foes before," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the door, only leaning over to talk to him. "They keep their minds straight until they no longer trust that the ambassador is only trying to battle verbally."

"Then go ahead." Tehctar walked past the many soldiers until he reached the door, before holding his hands up. A soldier walked up to the door and banged on it, before yelling "We are sending an ambassador in! Do not shoot on sight!" He walked away from the door and to the lock, sliding the keycard in opening it, revealing the Uniposer pointing their guns, watching the soldier with his hands up as he came in. He turned around and saw the door close behind him, and then saw all his friends pointing their guns at him.

"Treachery, is it?" he asked with a hidden smile on his face, crossing his arms.

"TEHCTAR!" yelled Talwyn, hugging him tightly as everyone else crowded around him. He took his helmet to reveal his weak, bleeding and sweating face. He pushed everyone and made a shushing sign with his hands.

"Look," he whispered. "I've created a plan. Now listen up, you are going to hide in the closets, and then I'll go out and pretend to be in pain, telling them that you injured me and escaped through the air ducts to another room. Once they leave, I'll let you guys through and we'll fight our way to the Scarzare."

Everyone nodded, and they scrambled to hide in the closets, squashing each other, but thankfully Ratchet and Talwyn got a closet together. Tehctar opened the air duct on the ceiling and pretended to hold his arm in pain and then open the door, where all the soldiers gasped, and the yellow-dressed one came to the front.

"What happened to you, soldier?" he asked desperately, pushing some olive soldiers out of the way.

"The intruders…" acted Tehctar, still clutching his arm. "They knocked me to the ground and went up the air ducts. They mentioned something about going to the Scarzare's throne room. I'm not familiar with the air ducts but they'll probably surface somewhere near the throne room." The yellow-dressed soldier, who was a Major, according to his platebody, nodded, before thinking about what to do next.

"Okay, troopers!" he yelled, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Split up into three groups and each group take a map of the air ducts, and then go to one of the three entrances near the throne room." Everyone started moving into three groups, before one from each took a map of the air ducts. The Major nodded, before turning to Tehctar. "Blueman! Make sure this soldier gets treated! Let's move!"

The soldiers all started marching out of the room, with one group going through the north door while the two others headed through the right one. The Major followed the northward group, and one olive soldier stayed behind, obviously the soldier named "Blueman". He motioned to check Tehctar's arm and let him, before he moved it up into his face, knocking him to the ground.

Tehctar began to run back to the closets, before being tripped by Blueman's blue hands, hence the name, and was then picked up by him and forcibly taking him by the shoulder through the east door. The Uniposers heard this happen, and then after waiting for a while, realised that no-one was there anymore. Ratchet exited the closet after kissing Talwyn, and then the others joined him, and they ran into the locker room. They looked around, but neither Tehctar or Blueman were there, so they had to guess where to go next.

"Okay, guys…" began Ratchet. "We can't split up because this mission is too important, so we will have to take a wild guess. I say north." He looked at the others, who nodded in agreement, and so they ran to the north door opening it, revealing an empty hallway, but they decided to go in.

* * *

Tehctar continued being dragged through the corridor, and then when he gathered enough strength, put his hand in front of Blueman's legs, tripping him and letting Tehctar go. He quickly got up and walked over to Blueman, whacking his body, while still feeling weak from the crash. He took the gun on the side of Blueman's belt, because his costume was lacking one, and then kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

He looked up and realised that Blueman had taken him farther than he thought. Where he thought they were going through a straight corridor, when he turned to go back to the door, a corner replaced it. He looked around the corner, but nothing was there except for doors. He ran the corridor, and looked around corner turning left, but to no avail.

Tehctar tried to find his way back to where the other Uniposers where, but still couldn't find them, and blindly entered a dark room. Drek, Vox, Otto, Tachyon and Nefarious all sat cradled in prison cells, sad that even with their combined forces, they were defeated twice.

"THE VILLAINOUS ALLIANCE?" yelled Tehctar getting the villains attention. "What are you doing here?" The VA remained quiet, and went back to their sulking, not wanting to talk to someone who defeated them. Tehctar shook his head and was about to left, when in the corner of his eye he caught sight of Master, hooked up to a computer inside a tank filled with liquid, and prevented him from shape-shifting.

"This is Master?" asked Tehctar to himself as he placed his hands on the shrivelled sad pink blob, being tortured in the chamber. He felt like releasing the creature, but then realised that he was an evil dictator that would kill Tehctar once he was free. He turned away from him and then walked over to the prison cells, and Nefarious lifted his head to see if Tehctar was coming closer, and then brang his head back down again.

"How did the "brilliant" minds of the Villainous Alliance get captured by the Scarzare anyway?" mocked Tehctar, before Nefarious brang his angry face up to face Tehctar, who was grinning evily and crossing his arms in delight.

"WOULD YOU LIKE A FLASHBACK, YOU LITTLE FU-Oh, Lance! Ohhhhh, ohhhh, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE YOU!" Nefarious's head froze with an angry stare at Tehctar and started playing a Lance & Janice episode.

"Ah well, I guess the Scarzare will tell me anyway," said Tehctar, leaving the room and feeling a little better, having faced the shame of the Villainous Alliance. He then realised that he was lost and therefore, continued to make his way through the complex, not knowing where to go.

The other Uniposers ran through the hallway (with Sasha2 still lagging behind a bit because of her injury), looking for Tehctar and Blueman, and then opened the door at the end of it, revealing a grey blank room with only a few benches around.

"Great," said Sasha, putting her gun away. "Where are we going to go now?" Sasha2 had finally reached the group, but no-one noticed her.

"Well," said Clank, on Ratchet's back. "If we find the Scarzare then we'll definitely find Tehctar and the Galactic President. So logic dictates that the Scarzare will be at the centre, and judging by the path we've taken, the most logical route is left." Ratchet thought about their directions for a while.

"Clank's right. We should go left. Let's go!" The Uniposers began to run to the left door and start to open it.

"Please, no…" said Sasha2, falling from exhaustion. Qwark quickly ran to side, and saw that she had fainted, and needed to rest. He picked her up just as the door opened, and slowly walked through the next hallway so Qwark could keep up with the weight he was carrying.

At the end of the hallway, Ratchet opened the door with the keycard, and met a group of about twenty to twenty-five soldiers aiming their guns at the air ducts, and Ratchet quickly whipped out the Saw Blaster, and fired a shot. 7 saws shot out in unison hemispherically and circled around the room slicing through all the soldiers, only leaving a few alive, which were taken out with the Modifigun.

"Damn, this Saw Blaster is good," said Ratchet, nodding towards the weapon was holding. He walked into the smelly room, from all the corpses on the floor, and no matter how much they tried, they all got blood on their shoes. Ratchet finally made his way to a red horizontally rectangular door and used the keycard to open it, and they all found themselves facing a room with yellow walls, filled with all sorts of entertainment, and at the end they saw the Scarzare, laying on the bed half naked and with "entertainment".

Talwyn excused herself to throw up, before coming back to the Uniposers. The room had red curtains all around, and at the end before the bed was a typical throne, red and velvet. There were Holo-book disc shelves and Holo-visions, and toward was right was a desk with many screens, showing a security camera display of rooms. The Scarzare didn't see them because of his "entertainment" and then the Uniposers prepared themselves.

Ratchet whipped out his Modifigun, while Qwark put Sasha2 beside the door and whipped out his gun, along with Talwyn and Sasha. Ratchet motioned for the others to followed his lead, and then he walked in and fired the Modifigun all over the walls, Holo-book discs and Holo-vision, grabbing the Scarzare's attention, who did a shooing motion to his "entertainment" who the Uniposers let run away. The Scarzare put his navy blue shirt on with the leather sash and stood, facing the attackers. They stopped firing once they had gotten close to him and stared at him, who was eyeing them off.

"So, you finally found me, and now you are probably going to kill me," he said, daring the Uniposers to shoot him. "Well, you might as well, because you've got **an hour **left until I tell the bandits your friends true form, but I'm sure he has figured out a way to tell you."

"Actually," said Ratchet, lowering his gun. "Only Sasha and Talwyn know Tehctar's true form. Apparently, he thought it was best that I didn't know who he was."

"Wait a minute," said Talwyn, lowering her gun as well. "I never told you that I knew Tehctar's true form. Did she tell you?" She pointed to Sasha in anger.

"Yes," said Sasha, lowering her gun as well. "In the middle of the night, I woke Ratchet up and apologised to him for our fight. And then we slept for the rest of the night. That's all."

"Oh, good," said Talwyn, sneering at Sasha. "I haven't trusted you lately, so I thought you might have done more than just "talk"."

"Good…" said the Scarzare, smiling evily.

"What?" asked Qwark, being the last one to lowering his gun.

"Well, since you left down your guard by lowering your guns, you have just been sucked into a TRAP!" Once he yelled the last word, five red commanders jumped down from the ceiling, and held their razor claws in front of the Uniposers necks. "Now you will witness the fall of your friend, and then eventually I'll be able to move forward with my plan."  
"Your plan?" asked Ratchet, before being silenced by being threatened by the commander holding him.

"Yes, my plan…" he said, facing the window on the left side of the base, showing a giant chunk of the land the base was on, before reaching the ocean, and a green lizard was crawling it's way up the rock. "I am going to turn everyone in the universe into me! Yes, me! Every stinking being in existance! How? That's for me to know and for you to find out!" He cackled viciously while a lightning flash covered half his face.

"That is so cliched…" said Qwark, unimpressed. Suddenly, the air duct in the ceiling opened and Tehctar jumped down, without his uniform, landing neatly on the ground, before raising his head towards the Scarzare.

"Time…to rock," he said, before putting on a pair of sunglasses.

"Too cliched…" moaned Qwark.

Chapter 18 Preview

_The Scarzare ran across the side of the tunnel, but occasionally slowed down, keeping his balance so he wouldn't fall into the dirty dark blue ocean below him. He reached an intersection, and climbed the ladder that was fixed onto it, before climbing into an unoccupied turret. The Uniposers followed him as he went, and suddenly they were being pelted by turret fire._

_Ratchet quickly threw a Windy Shield around them before they were hit, and then they proceeded to climb the stairs towards the turret. They were too close for the turret to hit them, so the Scarzare abandoned it and began to run over another tunnel. He quickly turned around and pulled out a gun at them, but they managed to climb behind a turret after their Windy Shield was disabled but before they were hit._


	18. The Deadline

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_The Uniposers land at the Scarzare's base, minus Tehctar, and fight their way through. Meanwhile, Tehctar is shot down by the turrets in the sky and crashes at a hangar. He steals a uniform and finds his way to a locker room, where a battalion of soldiers are waiting for the Uniposers to enter the door, so he pretends to be an ambassador and helps them. However, while the __plan works, Tehctar is separated again. The other Uniposers find the Scarzare, but gets trapped by the red-dressed commanders' Razor Claws, and then Tehctar jumps out of an air duct to save them…_

_Chapter 18: The Deadline_

"Gah!" yelled the Scarzare, taken aback by Tehctar's entrance. "It's you!" Tehctar didn't stop him as he opened a secret entrance in the back right corner of the room and ran outside, into the open. Ratchet's commander dropped his Razor Claw a bit in awe, and he took this opportunity to spin behind him and kick him in stomach, pushing him into the other commanders who fell like dominos. The Uniposers that we realised from the hold spun around and fired at the commanders, killing them instantly.

"Thanks, Tehctar," said Ratchet, turning towards him. Tehctar smiled and nodded, until his smile turned into a frown because they realised they had forgotten something. The Uniposers, minus Sasha2, ran out of the emergency door, and saw that the Scarzare had climbed up onto a tunnel and started to run for his safety. Tehctar was the first to climb the fixed ladder onto the tunnel, followed by Ratchet (and Clank), Talwyn, Sasha and Qwark.

The Uniposers stood on the tunnel, balancing themselves until they were comfortable and then followed the Scarzare. Raindrops pelted on their faces, which was pleasant to Tehctar's rough skin, but the rest hated it and constantly slipped while being blinded by the rain, and had to get help to get them back to their feet. Tehctar could see the Scarzare's shrouded body getting smaller and smaller and helped Talwyn get back up after slipping, before running after him.

The other Uniposers managed to keep up with Tehctar's nimble figure as they traversed the top the tunnel. Soldiers inside the base searching for them heard footsteps running across the roof, and they fired their guns up, blasting through the ceiling but not aimed well enough to hit them. They were then even angrier when the tunnel started getting rain coming through the roof, which could even cause a flood.

The Uniposers came to an intersection and looked around, and saw that the Scarzare had taken the right path as his figure was looming in the distance. Tehctar decided to take a shortcut by doing a leap of faith to the right tunnel, while the others just walked to the middle and carefully angled right, before running again. Sasha accidentally kicked her toe on one of the rings around the tunnel, and desperately tried to stay on, but to no avail and she fell down the side, hitting the rocky black ground hard.

"Don't worry about me," said Sasha weakly, trying her hardest to sit up. "I'll join you once I get to the next ladder." She saw that they were still standing, and she motioned for them to run after the Scarzare, and then got up while the other Uniposers started catching up to the Scarzare.

Clank jumped up and down on Ratchet's back as he ran after the Scarzare, and kept watch so he would fall off. Ratchet tripped like Sasha, but managed to stay on top of the tunnel, while Clank slid out of his back pack and fell to the ground, with his arms and leg extended. Sasha, who was still catching up with the Uniposers saw Clank on the ground, and picked him up, placing him on her back.

Ratchet, Talwyn, Qwark and Tehctar continued to follow the Scarzare, who was getting a bit larger in the distance, meaning that they were getting closer. Qwark suddenly stopped and Ratchet bumped into him, before slipping off the side of the tunnel, landing the Sasha's arms, who smiled at him before putting him down. Talwyn snarled at Sasha before noticing that Qwark had stopped to slowly walk over a rock that could trip him, and they then continued.

The rain had gotten heavier, and the roof of the tunnel became a waterslide as Talwyn and Qwark slipped from the water, but Tehctar didn't fight the slipperiness and used it to get closer to the Scarzare. Talwyn and Qwark fell off the edge, and were helped up by Ratchet and Sasha, who were still running along side, crossing the crevices and uneven edge of the rocky ground.

Tehctar was slid over the rings and kept his bottom on the ground to ensure that he stayed on the tunnel, and got closer and closer towards the Scarzare. He got close enough but couldn't stop himself, so he plowed into the Scarzare, knocking both of them of the tunnel and onto the ground below. Tehctar noticed that his friends were too far away to reach them, before being kicked in the face by the Scarzare.

Tehctar tried to trip his legs, but he avoided them and stomped on his back three times, before running away from the incoming Uniposers. By the time the others had got to Tehctar, he had just started getting up, and Ratchet and Qwark helped him do so, before they began to run after the Scarzare again, jumping over the crevices and sidling past the narrow ledges.

The Scarzare ran across the side of the tunnel, but occasionally slowed down, keeping his balance so he wouldn't fall into the dirty dark blue ocean below him. He reached an intersection, and climbed the ladder that was fixed onto it, before climbing into an unoccupied turret. The Uniposers followed him as he went, and suddenly they were being pelted by turret fire.

Ratchet quickly threw a Windy Shield around them before they were hit, and then they proceeded to climb the stairs towards the turret. They were too close for the turret to hit them, so the Scarzare abandoned it and began to run over another tunnel. He quickly turned around and pulled out a gun at them, but they managed to climb behind a turret after their Windy Shield was disabled but before they were hit.

The Scarzare shot at the Uniposers huddled behind the turret, but to no avail, so he moved on to run away from them again, going to the left instead of the right like last time. Ratchet noticed he was running away and quickly jumped on the turret, shooting towards him, but didn't hit him. Instead, the bullets hit the ground around and created a pothole, which completely threw off his balance.

He slipped on the even more slippery water and fell over towards the left, sliding off the tunnel with ease and onto the rocks, before falling into the dark blue shrouded water. He surfaced and tried to reach the rocks, but the waves kept pushing him away, and he had to desperately try and float to stay alive. Tehctar didn't care about the consequences and jumped into the water to go after the Scarzare, but not to save him.

Ratchet, Talwyn, Sasha, Clank and Qwark all reluctantly jumped into the water with Tehctar and swam towards the Scarzare, trying to grab him, but he was too wet to grab hold of. Unfortunately, the breaking of the waves separately all seven of them in different directions, and were washed to sea, still trying to get back to their friends and enemies. Clank was even pushed away from Sasha and lost sight of everyone else he knew...

* * *

Clank shut himself down so that his body would float against the water, and he would reactivate once he was out of it. His metal, white torso continued being push by the waves, even being seen by Sasha, but unfortunately she was pushed away uncontrollably. Clank's body was pushed against a mountain, denting him a little before a thankful wave pushed him along the side, before being taken by the waves moving into a cave.

The ground finally got higher as Clank's hard torso was finally pushed no more onto rocky ground, occasionally being nudged by the still-beating waves. His internal processing reactivated him and his head popped back out, and his three limbs stretching from their rest. Clank opened his eyes, and saw the sea past an arch acting as the doorway to the cave. He turned his body around, and saw a small dark tunnel stretching as far as the length of the Unipose.

Clank dragged his way to the middle and looked around, but however was greeted with nothing at all. He heard a clanking sound and turned around once again, and saw that he leg had taken the same path as himself and ended up on shore inside the cave. He crawled his way backwards and dived for his leg, clutching it tightly. He grinned evilly and sat up, before opening his radiator core, revealing a Zoni, one that he kept in case of an emergency.

"Zoni, I have kept you with me in case I needed you when I was alone, and right now I need you to use a little of your strength to heal my leg," said Clank, before being greeting with "ZONI!" and it flew out, before telekinetically moving his leg back to it's socket and sealing it up, and joined it back to his thoughts processor and he could move it again. He stood up and ran around the cave in joy, glad to be able to walk and run again.

Clank's joy was short lived, however, as the body of Talwyn floating into the cave, her head bleeding from obviously being pushed against the mountain and not breathing due to the water. He noticed that her heart had stopped and desperately tried performing CPR by pushing against her chest, but to no avail. He then opened his radiator core and sucked in oxygen, before putting his mouth over her's.

Clank's mouth expelled oxygen into Talwyn's, sending it to her lungs, but it wasn't enough. Clank tried again, and then pulled back, seeing Talwyn coughing and spluttering water out of her mouth, before fluttering her eyes open. Talwyn's hair and clothes were extremely wet, and her gun had stopped working from the water and her face was filled with so much water drops that you couldn't tell that she was crying.

Talwyn sat up and saw Clank looking at her with a concerned look on his face. She noticed that he was standing up and his leg was perfectly in place, and opened her mouth to say something, but closed it, deciding not to ask. She looked at the sea in front of her, and a hidden tear rolled down her cheek, and wondered if it was the end. She looked down, before turning to Clank.

"Clank…" she began, but really couldn't find everything to say. "I…hmmmm." She looked out at sea again, trying to find the right words, but decided to just move to the point she was trying to make. "I just pray that this isn't the end. I just want you to know that you have been a great friend and I hope that the others make it out of here."

"Talwyn…" began Clank, but decided to stop talking and just look at the ocean, where they both a fuzzy big-eared head pop out of the ocean, still conscious.

"RATCHET!" they yelled in unison, grabbing his attention, and he desperately tried to swim towards, before being picked up by the waves and moved away out of sight. Their happy grins turned to disappointed frowns, and they laid back down together. They waited in silence, resting, knowing that Ratchet was still alive and was coming for them both.

Qwark desperately tried to stay alive in the ocean, as he weighed a ton and wasn't a very good swimmer. He saw a cave in the distance and tried to swim towards it, but the waves kept pushing him away. He spontaneously bumped into something, and saw Tehctar in the ocean right next to him, trying to stay alive. He grabbed Tehctar's hand and they tried to swim together towards the cave, actually gaining a bit of distance.

A huge wave crashed over both of them, but they managed to hold onto each other and continue swimming towards the cave. Qwark was thrown off-course a little and was pushed towards the mountain, but he pressed his and Tehctar's hand on there to catch their breath, before another wave hit them, pushing them towards the cave, but forcing Tehctar's hand to let go and get pushed away again, while Qwark was thrown into the cave.

Clank and Talwyn heard a gasp and sat up, and saw that Qwark had washed up inside the cave and was currently drying off on the wet land and catching his breath, trying to calm himself down. He looked up and saw that Clank and Talwyn were alive and crawled to their, not noticing that Clank's leg had been repaired. He sat there, looking at the ocean in shock, now thinking that had been the cause of Tehctar's death, assuming that he was dead already.

Qwark touched his antenna, drying it and thinking about cutting it off in shame, due to the fact that he let an innocent boy get killed by the ocean. He looked at Clank and Talwyn, who didn't know about what happened between him and Tehctar, and then looked into the ocean, and got his hopes up a little when he thought he saw a Cazarean ear.

"I think we should get some rest," said Talwyn, finally having something to say. "We are exhausted and if we rest, we will feel better and we wouldn't have to wait in case any other Uniposers survive." Clank and Qwark nodded, and they all laid back on the hard rocky ground, and closed their eyes, trying to find some sleep on the uncomfortable surface, and to their surprise they fell asleep quickly. However, they were still in shock, which led Qwark into a horrific dream world…

_I am trapped in the ocean again, and I suddenly realise that finding Clank and Talwyn in the cave was all just a daydream. I remember that I let go of Tehctar's hand, and I see him being carried away by the water. I swim badly over to him and try to grab his hand again, but my leotard makes my fingers slippery._

_I lunge at his hand again, but he dodges it, and then turns his head towards me, revealing a black snarling face with generic yellow eyes and teeth, like a rotten pumpkin on Halloween. Suddenly, two black tentacles pop out of the ocean, followed by a gigantic squid body attached to Tehctar's body. His face snarls at me, before lunging, and pulling back before grabbing my body to tease me._

_I try to hide underwater, but the tentacles used for floating start kicking me in the ribs, and I am forced to resurface again. Two more tentacles come out of the ocean to join the two already in the air and they start jabbing at me, punching my ribs and knocking me around roughly. I desperately grab onto one of them and it lifts me up._

_It forces me off it and start a long journey towards the face the mountain. It gets closer and closer and closer until it covers my vision completely and…_

Qwark's eyes jolted open, and he slowly sat up, recovering from the dream and even having a vision of Tehctar washed up inside the cave. He decided not to wake the others up, and then looked around the cave, before noticing that the vision of Tehctar was still there, and then he moved over to it and decided to pass through, but instead his leg bumps the "vision's" head.

"TEHCTAR?" he asked in shock and happiness. He touched Tehctar's head and realised that he was real and then checked his heartbeat, which was racing from the adrenaline and punched the roof of the cave in joy, causing a tiny cave-in in which a few rocks started falling and the ground shook, waking Tehctar up.

"Qwark?" asked Tehctar, opening his eyes and still delirious from waking up. "Did…did you save me?" He sat up and looked at Qwark, whose face was undecided.

"I guess…" said Qwark, with his cockiness telling him to take the credit while his heart telling him to say that he failed. Tehctar immediately hugged Qwark's now-dry body, getting wet once again. "I guess that leaves Ratchet, Sasha and the Scarzare still out there in the ocean, probably dead by now."

Tehctar sat back down next to Qwark and thought about what could have happened to the other Uniposers, while Talwyn was still in her sleep, thinking about Sasha at the time because for some reason, even though she was a rival, she felt a friendly connection between them…

_I stood on a generic grey rectangular path floating in the middle of nowhere, as an orange sky surrounded me. The path in front of me twisted right, down and then left and behind me was only a never-ending straight line. The path was like a never-ending block that stretched on like bubbles. Suddenly, I see a giant green circular light pop up in the sky to the left of me._

_A second green light pops up next to it, like a set of eyes, followed by a white blur forming the shape of Clank's head. I smile as I realise as it is only a picture of Clank, but the white shape starts to blur a little again as it turns Clank's eyebrows into an angry look, and it spontaneously changes into black shape with red eyes, making me jump and slip off the edge of the path._

_I fall down the endless orange sky with yellow stars starting to form in the background, like a kindergarten student's drawing. I land on a green cloud, thinking that it's just another weird colour inside this crazy world. I soon realise that being green means the cloud is actually green because other clouds are around, but they are white._

_I hear a strong wind and feel it blowing on my face. It is pleasant and cools me down in the hotness of the orange sky, until I see leaves rustling towards my face and the wind picks up. I see a tornado in the distance, but only for a few seconds as the wind blows me off the cloud and I fall through the bland orange sky again, wondering where I will end up next._

_I land in a Jungalian Melee Contest arena, but there is no crowd and no announcer, only…Sasha. She looks at me with an angry look on her face, and she starts yelling, and even though I know it's about Ratchet and me not loving him, for some reason I can't hear the words at all. I try to reason with her by saying words that I don't understand or hear, but she doesn't listen, and lunges at me._

_I am forced to throw her to the ground as she tries to tackle me, but I don't want to hurt her because of the strange, special bond we hold. Once again, I speak inaudible words to try and reason, and surprisingly she listens for some of it, before getting up and walking to me politely, and then unexpectedly push me off the edge of the arena to fall into the lava sheet waiting for me…_

Talwyn was startled awake by her leg being pulled. She sat up and opened her eyes, and saw the innocent wet face of Sasha on the ground grabbing her leg for support and rest. Talwyn smiled and immediately got up and hugged her tightly. They embraced for a few seconds, before Sasha let go, confused.

"What are you hugging me for? I thought you hated me!" asked Sasha, looking at Talwyn with a confused expression on her face. She looked at Talwyn as she was thinking of an answer, and finally came to one.

"I…had a dream," said Talwyn, looking at Sasha with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Oh, yeah," said Sasha, rubbing her left arm uncomfortably. "I had a dream once, when I was young, about a boy who lived in my neighbourhood. My father and I only lived in a small place because he didn't have a good job, and he said to me that one day, he'll be the president of the galaxy. Anyway, the boy's name was Zeke, and he was the only friend I had. I didn't have any known feelings for him until one night, when I had a dream about him. It wasn't really anything exotic, it was just him and me in the dream, and I suddenly fell in love with him. I couldn't really share my feelings because I didn't know what would happen after we did, and for some reason, he showed an attraction to me as well, like he had the exact same dream. I kept telling myself that I should show my feelings, but I kept backing down and soon it was too late. One day, his father lost his job and had to move to Shaar to find work as a tour guide for the temple, before DreadZone took over. I didn't realise it until a week later and I cried for days, but my father didn't know that I loved him. I'm not sure if it was true love or not, but I did love him. I have never seen him again to this day. I guess the same is going to happen to Ratchet."

Qwark started sobbing heavily as he was listening to story along with Talwyn and Tehctar, who only nodded and had grim looks on their faces. Clank, however was still sleeping heavily, and was having a robotic dream about Ratchet and his fate…

_I stood in a greyish-white sky, like the colour of my skin, but I had nothing under me. I didn't know if I was falling or not, because I couldn't feel any wind and the atmosphere around me didn't change at all. Suddenly, all sorts of colours making shapes blurred in front of me shooting straight up, until I felt solid ground. I was on a grey gravel pathway in between two white paths._

_There were brown three-storey buildings around me and I saw a strange species walking down these paths. They had a pinkish skin colour and were humanoid figures, like Lombaxes, except taller and more slender, except for one who had a stomach bulging out. It was drizzling a bit, but I couldn't feel it. I knew because the road was wet and people were carrying umbrellas._

_A strange spaceship-like vehicle with wheels came into view and moved along the ground, turning the corner and driving towards me. I felt like moving out of the way but I couldn't. My legs were stuck to the ground. I waited for impact but instead, the vehicle stopped and the door opened. Ratchet came out of the vehicle with sunglasses on, and slammed the door shut._

_He walked up to me and grabbed my hand, before squashing it and throwing me up in the air. I flew up into the sky and noticed all sorts of buildings and brands all around and a city filled with vehicles and the humanoid species. Once I started falling, I thought I would break apart on the ground, but instead I floated an inch above it in a sleeping position and I started moving beyond my control._

_I kicked into Ratchet and was pushed and pushed and pushed even further by an unknown controller until I slammed through the doors of a building and headed straight for a cubicle and thought I would smash through it, but the doors opened and I stopped inside the cubicle. There was a humanoid creature in suit carrying a briefcase and he noticed me and smiled, before minding his own business._

_Suddenly, the cubicle started moving upwards and I noticed a light moving upwards beside the door. I was shaken when it stopped and the door opened, followed by the gentleman next to me walking out. I tried going out too, but I was stuck once again, like when I was in front of the vehicle. The door closed against my wishes, and I was thrown upwards with the cubicle again, except this time at super-speed._

_It __spontaneously stopped and I was hurtled upwards from the force and banged my head on the top, before I came back down again, still floating, and the door opened. I was pushed out of the cubicle and saw Ratchet standing in front of the window. Beyond my control, I charge towards him and kicked his head, throwing him backwards out of the window and to fall to his death…_

Clank woke with a fright, and saw a Lombax hand trying to comfort him after his bad dream. He looked around and Talwyn, Tehctar, Qwark and Sasha smiling at him, before seeing Ratchet in front of him, drenched with water but somehow surviving the cruel cruel ocean.

"Ratchet!" Clank yelled and gave his best friend for years a hug.

"Looks like your celebration has been cut short," said a familiar voice, and everyone turned around to the back of the cave to see the Scarzare popping out of the shadows holding them a gunpoint.

"How did you get in here?" yelled Talwyn, looking at him angrily. The Scarzare pointed the gun at her before speaking.

"While you and your little metal lunch box and leotard retard were sleeping I casually slipped into the cave and hid in the shadows, waiting for all of you to surface. And now I have you at gunpoint. Isn't life pleasant?"

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" yelled Sasha, trying to reason with the Scarzare. "WHAT MOTIVES DO YOU HAVE TO KILL AN INNOCENT CHILD?" The Scarzare moved the gun over to her and thought for a while, before thinking of an alternative.

"Well, maybe you could tell me that, if I told you my past," said the Scarzare. "But if any of you try any funny stuff, it's bye-bye time."

* * *

_My counterpart, the Galactic President was naked to the boxers, and __was chained against a vertical table next to an empty one while Nefarious and Master were working at the controls. They placed two plugs on the President's head, and put even more on his body. Nefarious was lazy and got Lawrence to pull the switch, causing electricity to crackle out of his body._

_His stomach started swirling and a figure popped out like a baby, except I was a line and formed on the adjacent table, except with a purple skin colour. I had a scar on my cheek but the President had it as well, as they needed a bit of someone's skin to complete the cloning. I was out of control and desperately tried to destroy something, but I was chained to the table and couldn't get out._

_The Galactic President was unconscious and taken down, before being moved somewhere, and I just assumed it was a prison. My black, combed-back hair was wild from the cloning as Nefarious, Lawrence and Master re-entered the room, and because I was uncontrollable, they had to wheel the table away. I went through many corridors of the cloning facility until I was taken to a large room, the size of an ice rink._

_This must have been the junk room, as they had no problem taking me down from the table and quickly running as I ran on all fours through the room ripping everything to shreds, until my muscles got larger and larger and all the metal junk in the room was decimated. I was left standing in a knee-deep pool of small metal bits that were too small to break open__._

_Cloned __Tyhrranoids constantly moved in and out of the room, bringing more junk to break apart, as Blarg scientists watched behind a secure window on how the cloning process went, and I guessed I was an experiment for a "perfect warrior" program or something. Eventually, my hunger for destruction wore down and I fell sick from exhaustion._

_I was dressed in white hospital clothes and placed in a healing room, a completely white room with a bed, a few chairs, a table and a Holo-vision, while the non-fragrance toxins in the room gradually healed me. After four hours of watching a Holo-vision show about four turtles who were mutated into ninjas__, the door opened and I was allowed to leave to leave the room._

_Because, technically, I was still a baby, being only a few days old and that my maturity rate needed a few more days to start increasing, I gracefully accepted a lollypop and sucked it as I was taken to a firing range, where there were DZ Strikers, Exterminators, Technomite Torsos, Blargs, Four-Eyed Tyhrranoids and Drophyds firing at targets, and once they noticed me they all saluted as I was directed to a free firing booth._

_I learned how to use a blaster and I was tested on my accuracy, and I hit the bullseye every time, proving me successful as a warrior. I was sent to a group of bandits to help them to see how well I coped with a mission, and a group of scientists came with me to watch my progress. When I got the chance, I killed them and begun my plans for annihiliation of the universe, but helping the bandits would give me some hard-working money._

_They gave me 10,000 bolts in advance and told me to find someone who was disguised as a Cazarean boy named Tehctar, so I took the bolts and told them that once I built a station, I could track him. They lived on an asteroid, far too small for me to build a base on, so they sent me to Rancine, where I hired some soldiers and started building a base, which was really for comfort and pride, and not really tracking, because I decided to kill the bandits once I found Tehctar._

_Once I arrived at Rancine, I first hired some Mimbians to build me a station, and even helped me with the blueprints. They were volunteers for a galactical project and didn't accept money for their work, but I treated them well so they wouldn't rebel. I was impressed with the finishing touches, and only a small cubicle of the base was needed to track Tehctar._

_Once I tracked the name Tehctar, I found a few stories about him, including one revealing his past and who he really was. I decided to send a message around the galaxy to a Cazare named Tehctar and knew that once he found it, he would try and use the two days to find and destroy me. So, in preparation, I hired an army of Mimbian soldiers with the 10,000 bolts I had and got them to guard the base while I worked on my plans._

_My heart told me that the boy named Tehctar would be easy to destroy, but I had gut feeling that he would be tougher than he looks, and it seems I was right. Once I finally finished my plans, I heard that the base had been infiltrated. I decided to not worry about it and celebrate my victory in creating a plan, and then the bunch of losers known as the Uniposers came in and tried to kill me…_

"I'm sure you know the rest, or are you too stupid to remember?" yelled the Scarzare, smiling at his insult. Talwyn growled at him, and he decided to make fun of her.

"Ohhhh, did baby bear get angry because her bottle was stolen?" he mocked in a stupid voice. This caused Ratchet to try and lunge at the Scarzare, but Sasha and Tehctar held him back.

"Heh heh, I knew you were too weak to go up against me!" he proudly said in a cocky voice. "Now…the deadline has arrived and it is finally the time. It is time to reveal your true identity…mis-"

BANG! The Scarzare's eyes turned wide, alarming the Uniposers, and he fell to the ground, revealing a blaster wound in his stomach. Ratchet turned around and saw Sasha2, drenched and holding her pistol in her hand, crying because he was killing her own father. Qwark slowly walked up to her and took the gun out of her hands, as Ratchet grabbed and cradled the Scarzare in his arms.

"Damn you…my own daughter…why…" said the Scarzare, as he closed his eyes and his body went limp, breathing for the last time in his life. Ratchet laid his head back on the rocky ground, obviously sad that someone had died in his hands, but kept telling himself that he tried to kill them, multiple times. Everyone watched Ratchet as a tear started falling down his cheek.

The Uniposers were alarmed by a collapsing sound, and they turned to it, and saw Sasha2 on the ground clutching her stomach in pain.

"Sasha2, what's happening?" asked Ratchet, holding her in his arms as well.

"I killed my source…" she said weakly, seething through her teeth. "Because it is dead, that means I'm going to die too…"

"Sasha2! No!" he yelled, crying even more and hugging her tightly. "You knew this all along…didn't you? You knew that to kill the person you hated the most, you had to kill yourself as well."

"Yes…" she said, as Ratchet cried even more, and felt Sasha2 breath heavily on his chest. "It's so cold, so dark…" She started crying and suddenly feared her death, proving again that she was more than just a mutation. "This was meant to happen…Ratchet! Make the cold stop. I want it to be warm…please, Ratchet…" Ratchet pulled her towards him tightly, giving her all the warmth he had, and she smiled as she felt the fuzziness inside of her as her face turned even paler than the pale purple and she finally went to sleep forever.

Sasha started balling her eyes out on Talwyn's shoulder, who hugged her and comforted her, while Qwark and Tehctar did the same and embraced. Clank walked over to his best friend and patted his shoulders, before being hugged as well by Ratchet's big body. They mourned the loss the of Sasha2, but would soon be distracted by the return of the Villanous Alliance…

Chapter 19 Preview

"_Major!" he yelled, getting the major's attention, forcing him to stand and salute at him. Tehctar got an evil smirk on his face as he realised that he was now a boss, but decided not to push it because of the danger they were in. "At ease." The major placed his hand by his side. "I need to get soldiers patrolling this whole place! We are looking for a blue robot, a Slademan with a robotic hand, a Blarg cyborg, a full-sized Technomite in red and yellow robes, a tiny Cragmite and be careful for anything suspicious looking, as there is a shape-shifter in the vicinity."_

_The Major understood every word and ran off to tell every soldier he could find to look out for the Villainous Alliance. Tehctar smiled cheekily at the other Uniposers, before rushing off to search for the members, along with some soldiers who decided to add to their protection. They ran through several doors and corridors, looking straight ahead and not bothering to look down, but once they entered one corridor, they all stopped in their tracks except for Tehctar, who kept running and tripped on something falling to the ground. The other Uniposers didn't notice him, because they stood in shock staring at the unconscious body of Angela Cross…_


	19. Return of the VA

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After successfully locating the Scarzare inside his own base, the Uniposers chase him through the outside of the base until he falls into the ocean. The Uniposers follow him, but then get separated by the rough waves. Clank arrives inside a cave, followed by Talwyn, Qwark, Tehctar, Sasha and then Ratchet, but the Scarzare is revealed to have snuck into the cave while Clank, Talwyn and Qwark were sleeping. He tells them about their past, and then proceeds to reveal Tehctar's true identity, but is shot dead by Sasha2, who recovered from her wound and followed them into the ocean. However, killing the Scarzare also results in Sasha2 sharing the same fate, as she was created out of him, and knew that she would have to sacrifice herself for Tehctar…_

_Chapter 19: Return of the VA_

After swimming their way back to the base, the Uniposers exited the secret entrance in the Scarzare's throne room and buried Sasha2 in the rocky ground. The soldiers gave them no resistance, as their leader was dead and they were willing to take orders from Ratchet, but he set them free. Ratchet and Qwark carried a tombstone and placed it in the ground, right where Sasha2 was buried, and they joined the others in mourning the loss of her.

Ratchet gave Talwyn a shoulder to cry on, while Clank decided to be strong, and only have a sad expression on his face, while a waterfall rushed on inside him. Qwark was sobbing like a baby, and pounding on the ground and Tehctar was guilt-ridden, feeling that he was responsible for Sasha2's death, even though it was her who wanted Tehctar's help. He managed to find a little amusement from Qwark's antics, but still kept a solemn look on his face. Sasha felt shocked that just when she was getting used to having a copy of her, like a sister, she no longer had one because of her fate which was known to her from the start.

"FREEDOM!" yelled a Mimbian soldier on the roof of the throne room, his voice echoing through the mountains. He grabbed the Uniposers attention, and they witnessed him cutting the power to the base. Tehctar, at the last second, realised that cutting the power would remove the power from the cage Master was locked up in, allowing him to shape-shift into anything and release the others, or even destroy the whole base and kill the Uniposers.

"NO!" Tehctar reached his hand out at a normal pace, although it felt like he was slowly doing it due to the shock. It was too late. Just when the Mimbian soldier realised Tehctars orders, the cutter in his hands had already chomped through the wires, and to Tehctar's dismay, the lights began to blink out all over the base, creating a spider web of darkness, although the doors did not close as they were already open and only needed power to follow the command of the keycard.

"Tehctar, what is going on?" asked Talwyn, feeling a wave of weirdness inside her for calling the creature "Tehctar", although she knew his real name and identity. She waited for an answer, but Tehctar keep his face focused on the Mimbian soldier, who was trying to figure out what he had done wrong, and mentally beating himself to death over it. Finally, Tehctar calmed himself down and turned to face Talwyn, ready to answer her question.

"When I got separated after helping you escape from the army of soldiers, I got lost and found a room, where the Villainous Alliance was being held." Ratchet face turned to an expression of shock, because he had completely forgotten about the VA and wondered how they captured. "The leader is a shape-shifter aptly named Master, and he, she or it-I'm just going to use "he"-Anyway, he was in a giant tank of water, hooking up to some system which prevented him from shape-shifting, disallowing him to save the others, and when the power was cut, it would shut down the tank and allow Master to escape…"

True to Tehctar's word, Master was feeling like he was close to death, when the lights in the room went out, startling him and the other villains, giving the Master a sudden burst of energy and hope, because if it was a power failure, not only would the lights go out. He got a rare sense of happiness when the special glass the tank was made of slipped down, along with the liquid, which was being drained, and Master was happy to be able to breathe in oxygen, the most pleasant gas to inhale.

Master noticed that the wires were still on him, but they wouldn't be a problem anymore, because with the power gone, they were just non-functional loose wires, stuck to him for the meantime. He easily slipped out of them by producing a "glitchy"-looking pink glow and suddenly disappeared from sight. This was due to the fact that he had transformed into a tiny grub, laying on the floor of the tank, and watched as the wires that were once on him were now falling to the ground.

Master smiled evilly, but the smile was hidden as he was just a grub, and as sticky as he was, he began to wriggle up the slope of the floor and over the edge, and once again transformed as he fell to the ground. A tiny blue hovercar, clearly made as a toy, was now floating above the surface of the ground and the steering wheel inside turned with no-one driving it, and it drove uncontrollably around until he was facing the prison bars separating Nefarious and Tachyon, and then spontaneously turned into a light-brown boulder.

It rolled like a wheel towards the prison bars and Nefarious and Tachyon, afraid that they would get hit by some shrapnel, quickly rushed to stand up and back themselves as far away from the boulder as possible, and watched as the boulder slammed into the bars and demolished them, stopping just before hitting the wall and creating a hole allowing both Nefarious and Tachyon to run free. Smiling, they both walked carefully over the debris and exited through the hole, loosening up their bodies and getting ready to kick some ass again.

Master (still as a boulder) turned and plowed through the bars of the other villains, making sure not to hit them, and then finished creating a path going through each cell, allowing the others to walk through and exit through the entrance hole Master had made. Nefarious and Tachyon waited in delight as their friends, Vox, Drek and Otto, climbed their way through the cells and eventually exited their containment into the free open air.

"So are we going to find the newly-named Uniposers and crush them to pieces?" asked Vox to the other villains, punching his new robotic hand with his other fist, preparing himself for blood.

"That wouldn't be a wise choice," said the voice of Master, who appeared behind the other villains in the form of a Terachnoid. "They are armed and probably now have those soldiers on their side, while we have lost our armies and are now unarmed."

"What about the Backup Base?" asked Otto, who was confused at Master for being cautious.

"Exactly. Here's the plan," began Master, making the other villains huddled around their leader, waiting for the instructions. "All of you need to sneak your way to a hangar, and hide yourselves in a fighter, and then wait for me. I'll be able to find you because of the safety tracking device I implanted into Nefarious' head, with allowed me to find you on Tanley, until that mistake followed us and captured us again. Meanwhile, I'll be in the middle of trapping the Uniposers on this worthless base, and they can't use the fighters because the power in them is cut. I'll be able to provide power for our fighter, which we'll use to escape to the Backup Base, before unleashing the Weapon. Let's go!"

The Villainous Alliance, minus Master, all began to cautiously scramble towards the door, and at the last second Nefarious looked back, and understood what Master was about to do. He felt the others moving out into the hallway, meaning it was clean of soldiers, and then followed them and caught sight of them moving to a corner on the left, before disappearing, and he quickly ran to catch up with them.

The Uniposers desperately tried to keep up with Tehctar, who was searching all over the base for a red commander, or at least, a yellow major. He kept running through corridors of olive soldiers, who stood out of his way to let him pass, and even some decided to join him in his search, but eventually trailed off, realising that he didn't need the help. He finally came to the same locker room as from when he was dressed up as a soldier, and saw the same major sitting on a bench, looking quite depressed.

"Major!" he yelled, getting the major's attention, forcing him to stand and salute at him. Tehctar got an evil smirk on his face as he realised that he was now a boss, but decided not to push it because of the danger they were in. "At ease." The major placed his hand by his side. "I need to get soldiers patrolling this whole place! We are looking for a blue robot, a Slademan with a robotic hand, a Blarg cyborg, a full-sized Technomite in red and yellow robes, a tiny Cragmite and be careful for anything suspicious looking, as there is a shape-shifter in the vicinity."

The Major understood every word and ran off to tell every soldier he could find to look out for the Villainous Alliance. Tehctar smiled cheekily at the other Uniposers, before rushing off to search for the members, along with some soldiers who decided to add to their protection. They ran through several doors and corridors, looking straight ahead and not bothering to look down, but once they entered one corridor, they all stopped in their tracks except for Tehctar, who kept running and tripped on something falling to the ground. The other Uniposers didn't notice him, because they stood in shock staring at the unconscious body of Angela Cross…

* * *

The aqua eyes of Angela revealed themselves, very dimly, before she spotted her loved one, Ratchet, staring at her in shock, giving her a burst of energy. She quickly crawled her way to Ratchet's legs and hugged them tightly, giving Ratchet tears in his eyes. Everyone was happy and quite confused, except for Tehctar, who did several profile checks on Angela Cross, and none mentioned being captured by the Villainous Alliance.

"Ratchet…" she rasped, her eyes filling with tears, thankful to see the one that got away. Tehctar was still extremely suspicious and motioned for the soldiers protecting them to point their guns at Angela, turning Ratchet's face red in anger. The other Uniposers were shocked at what Tehctar was doing, but Talwyn and Sasha realised that he was suspicious of Angela.

"WHAT THE FRAK IS GOING ON?" Angela yelled in her masculine voice, looking at the Cazarean boy with wild eyes.

"We don't know if you are the real Angela, because you might be an impostor," said Tehctar, making Ratchet's eyes roll and Angela to be even more wild to Tehctar, almost pouncing on him, before realising that the soldiers aiming at her would shoot. "So, if you are the real Angela, then tell me how you got here inside the Scarzare's base."

"God, do I have to-Fine…" said Angela, quickly agreeing in the middle of her complaint, because she heard the soldiers cock their guns. "I seeked the help of Max Apogee, and while I was gone on Mustyr, that Talwyn girl boarded the ship so I had to stay on the planet for a while. When she left, I took back the ship and then warped to another sector, when in fact I warped near the planet where the Scarzare's base was and went into the planet, before being shot down. Max Apogee had already left the ship to search for his daughter, so he gave me ship. So, then I was captured and taken in prison, and was released when the power went out."

"Okay," said Tehctar, nodding, but was still not convinced of her being the real Angela. "Tell me then…what creature did you and Ratchet fight in the Megacorp Headquarters?"

"That's too easy," said Angela, smiling at how pathetic the questions were. "The Mutant Protopet, created from that imbecile Captain Qwark over there." She pointed her thumb at Qwark and made him angry, and was only stopped from attacking her by Ratchet and Talwyn.

"You're right," said Tehctar, crossing his arms with an unconvinced look on his face. "That was too easy. Ratchet, you know more about the adventure with "her", so you can ask her detailed questions, and then see if she is really Angela." Angela looked innocently at Ratchet, but he smartened himself up and had to know if it really was Angela.

"Okay," he said, rubbing his fingers on his chin in a thinking pose. "When me and Clank were on Smolg, what type of message did you send to us from Grelbin?" Tehctar looked wide-eyed at Angela, expecting her to not know the question at all, and Ratchet was eager to know as well, but afraid that his quest to find Angela had failed.

"A balloon-o-gram," said Angela, smiling evilly to herself. Tehctar's and Ratchet's eyes turned wide, and Ratchet's frown turned into smile when he realised that Angela had come back. Angela had been found, fulfilling his original quest, which was side-tracked drastically. Just like he thought when they began, if he ever got de-railed it may lead to finding Angela after all.

"Wait a minute…" said Tehctar, still unconvinced. "Ratchet, ask her another-"

"IT'S ANGELA, OKAY?" snapped Ratchet, hugging her tightly in a death grip. Talwyn and Sasha felt a little uncomfortable with their "boyfriend" hugging another woman, but they relaxed themselves with knowledge that they were long-time friends and hadn't seen each other in ages.

"Look," said Angela, releasing Ratchet and wanting there to be no trouble. "If you want to me to prove that I am friendly, then why don't I fix your ship for you? I heard some guards saying that a ship full of characters of your description crashed inside a hangar." Tehctar was still unconvinced of Angela being the real one, and began to follow the other Uniposers as they started navigating their way through the base, passing many soldiers on the look out for the Villainous Alliance, and they even heard a few shooting, but knew that the soldiers would take care of the VA and decided to avoid the battle going on.

The Uniposers continued to run, but Ratchet was stopped by Tehctar, who tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" asked Ratchet, obviously frustrated and scaring Tehctar a bit.

"Check the tracking device you have to locate Angela." Ratchet understood that if Angela was real, she would appear right next to them on the tracking device. He quickly unclipped it from his belt and held it up, joined by Tehctar who looked at the device with him. His brain went wild when he saw that Angela was in fact right next to them, and Ratchet smirked, knowing that Tehctar was wrong.

Tehctar took the tracking device and they both quickly ran down through the corridor, trying to catch up to the Uniposers, and then ran straight through a T-intersection, but stopped when they realised that in the corner of their eyes, they saw their friends. They paced back, and turned through the second corridor, running and running until they finally bumped into the Uniposers. They were finally directed by Tehctar, as they arrived at the same locker room again and then exited through the south entrance, going through a corridor.

"The Unipose should be down here," said Tehctar, leading the Uniposers to run down the corridor with him and they then saw that the door to the hangar was closed, and with the power out, nothing could open the door. Tehctar banged on the door in frustration, desperately wanting to prove that Angela was an impostor. He tried to shrug off Ratchet and Qwark as they pulled him away from the door, but didn't have the strength.

Tehctar watched as Ratchet pulled out his Saw Blaster and fired it at the door, slicing it but not quite destroying it. He then let Qwark pull out his gun and fire it at the bottom of the door, creating a small opening that they would be able to fit through. But Ratchet wasn't content and pulled out his Modifigun and fired it at the door, creating bullet wounds all over before being pushed back and revealing a path to the broken down Unipose.

Tehctar was the first one to climb through, followed by Angela, and they ran towards the Unipose, with Tehctar in despair as the others climbed through the gap and walked towards the pair, studying the Unipose's damages, and discussing to each other. Angela ended the inaudible conversation with a nod, and climbed into the Unipose to find some tools, while Tehctar backed off to do his own thing.

When no-one was looking, Tehctar quickly whipped out the tracking device and set it to track Angela. He then put the device away and ran into the Unipose and placed tiny cameras in the cockpit and engine room, avoiding the sight of the other Uniposers who had entered the Unipose to help clean up. He set them to record the actions taken inside the rooms and decided to help the search for the Villainous Alliance as the cameras recorded Angela's repairs. He found the major sitting back down at the locker room, taking his helmet off to reveal a green Mimbian, with a grey soldier. He saw Tehctar looking at him and tried to remember what he was going to say to him.

"Ahhh," stuttered the Major, trying to remember. "So, the soldiers are looking all over for those characters. I heard a few had located them, but they got away before they could damage them. Wait a minute…you were the little squirt who was dressed as soldier. You helped them get away, didn't you?" Tehctar nodded, expecting to be attacked. "You must be a smart little fella, hey? You fooled me."

"Thanks," said Tehctar, looking back up at him and smiling. The Major stood up and saluted him, before walking off with a boost of confidence, knowing that someone as stealthy and smart as Tehctar was helping him.

Over the next two days, The Unipose was still being repaired, and as the beds were either destroyed or messy, they all decided to take some of the spare beds that the guards use and no-one wanted to take the luxurious bed the Scarzare had (who knows what could have happened on it?), as they killed some on entry of the base. However, during those two nights, the escaped members of the Villainous Alliance were nowhere to be found…

During the first night, Angela remained awake in her bed, with a bunch of other beds next to and opposite her, mainly guards who weren't on shift, but noticed that Ratchet was next to her and Clank was opposite Ratchet. They were both asleep, which gave Angela the signal, so she sat upright, and removed the sheets that were over her, and slowly turned and stood up, making sure that no-one was awake, watching her.

She sighed and then moved through the room, looking at all the beds while making her way to the door, and quickly opened it, shining in some natural light which could wake someone, but thankfully, it did not. She immediately walked through it and shut the door, hoping that no-one saw her leave. Angela moved to walk left down the hallway, and didn't see the door she had just closed open to reveal the tiny metallic body of Clank.

Angela (not noticing the little robot following her) quickly and quietly tip-toed through the corridors, until she finally came to a room with guards in them. They saluted her, not questioning why she was out of the bed, and only went at ease when Clank finally passed by too. She continued walking through the complex in the flannel pajamas Talwyn had given her, and they managed to fit quite nicely.

Clank had no idea where Angela was going, as they passed through many corridors and rooms, but he realised that she wasn't lost at all, and then maintained Tehctar's thoughts that this Angela was an impostor. The real Angela would never know where to go in this base, let alone get up in the middle of the night. Plus, not once had she been clumsy, unlike when she was in Bogon.

Eventually, Angela entered the hangar where the Unipose sat, the smoke having dissipated before nightfall. It was now a half-repaired spaceship, but was still nose-first in the ground and some of it's metal skin scattered across the hangar, seeing how their job in the morning was to find and place the parts back in their spots while Angela continued fixing the cockpit's functions and the engines to the Unipose, and she would then weld the parts back after they were all discovered.

Angela opened the broken door to the Unipose and entered, while Clank followed her and poked his head out, looking through the door to see what Angela was doing. He saw her pull out a black cuboid, with a green swirly pattern on the front, and she opened the tiny door under the steering wheel and took the IEFC out and quickly placed the black cuboid inside. Before Clank could quickly get out of sight, she had already turned her head and saw the metal robot eavesdropping on her.

"You are not the real Angela are you?" asked Clank, finally appearing in full with his hands on his hips, watching Angela's evil sneer on her face.

"Go to sleep, Clank," growled Angela, her heart elevating.

"No, Angela, or whoever you are, I am going tell Ratchet about what you did to the Unipose," said Clank, who tried to run off, but Angela caught up to him and grabbed him with one hand.

"But you will go to sleep, Clank," she said, before bringing out a taser from her back pocket and turning it on, before attacking Clank, causing his whole body to twitch until his green eyes turned off and she dropped him and watched as his limp body laid there in a heap…

* * *

A group of guards stood outside the room where the Uniposers (minus Clank, Talwyn and Sasha) were staying, managing to find some coffee in the storage room, enough for the guards and definitely enough for the Uniposers. They also found a pile of mugs and a table, and they decided to set up a little stall in front of the Uniposers room and make coffee for anyone who went by, in celebration of their freedom from the Scarzare.

The guards had all agreed to work for the Scarzare, but after being paid they were tricked into become his slaves, and if they ever showed signs of escaping or were not performing enthusiastically. Now that they were free, they decided to celebrate with some coffee and cheers, and perhaps even more activities until the power was back online and they could escape. Thankfully, they had been given a start when they managed to wire the power to the doors back up, but it was a long way from there until they could power up the ships and escape. They all drank and watched happily as guards who were trying to fix the power walked by and took a cup of coffee poured by them.

Talwyn felt natural sunlight seeping through a glass window, and heard a Holo-flute in the distance play a peaceful song, giving her a wide smile on her face. She opened her eyes and sat upright, looking through the window to see birds fluttering around and the mountains keeping calm and allowing the sun to show. She quickly got out of bed, feeling warm inside and rushed to the window, looking out to the beautiful life outside.

Not once before in her life had she felt so good, and being after the defeat of the Scarzare, it was a great time for a beautiful day to spark by. The smell of coffee outside the room seeped through the door and Talwyn's heart started racing, as within minutes everything was perfect. To her, this was the greatest time of her life. She ran past the beds, not noticing that Clank and Angela's were unoccupied, and quickly opened the door.

She was greeted by a smile from one of the two Mimbian guards who were still making coffee (the others took a break), and Talwyn immediately noticed that they weren't wearing their helmets, and it seemed strange to her. The other guard that didn't smile at her was busily pouring coffee into a mug, before offering it to her and smiling. She graciously accepted the beverage and opened the nearest closet, taking a sip and finding some chairs that could be used for anyone who cared to come by and have a sip of coffee.

The door opened just as Talwyn finished setting up three chairs for her and guards to sit on, but there were plenty more for other people. Sasha appeared at the door, tired, dazed and having a headache. She didn't even noticed Talwyn and the guards looking at her, and ran into the wall, before shaking her head to clear her mind. She was interrupted by a coffee mug coming into view, and turned to see Talwyn smiling at her with a coffee maker and mug of coffee in her hand.

She took the coffee and quickly drank some of it, feeling better afterwards and sat down next to the others. She fully woke up after finishing the mug and helped Talwyn and the guards give some coffee to whoever passed by. They didn't realise, however until Sasha wanted some more coffee, that all the coffee in the portable machine had run out, and they could no longer give coffee to anyone.

"Oh no," began Sasha, realising that she only got a drop out of the machine. "We have run out of coffee! What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry," said the Mimbian on the left in a scrambled voice, who was originally pouring the coffee. "There's plenty of stocked coffee in the tanks in Storage Room 671."

"Six Seven One?" asked Sasha, trying to remember the numbers. "Where is that?"

"Come," he said, standing up and stretching himself after sitting down and chatting. "I'll show you. Heh…I feel like I've just been on a morning talk show on Channel 96." Sasha stood up and they both headed left, disappearing down the corner while talking about the Dallas & Juanita Morning Coffee Show. "So, once Dallas & Juanita ended with them finally resolving their differences and Zeri was kicked out by them, they decided to create a talk show, where their every morning was recorded. They start by pour their coffee and sit on the couch, and talk about recent news and have guests join them. It hasn't started yet, but I've heard rumours about some of the first guests appearing each show. I heard that Shellshock got revived after DreadZone and has now retired and decided to come onto the show. Abercrombie Fizzwidget has also been heard appearing, and even Gary and Helen left Annihilation Nation and were rumoured to talk about their lives afterwards."

"Sound interesting," said Sasha, walking past some guards in a corridor. "Hopefully I'll watch it on Channel 96 after we find the Villainous Alliance and then go home. When did you say it would start?"

"In about a month," said the Mimbian, noticing a sign saying "Storage Room 671". He ran over to it and took out a keycard, before opening the door. Sasha followed him into a dark room with many tubes filled with brown coffee. The coffee was being heated by a back-up power supply, which was going to run out in four days.

"This is why we are giving free coffee to everyone in the complex, so it won't be wasted," said the Mimbian, placing the machine into a slot on one of the tubes, and Sasha watched in awe as the coffee slowly sank into the small portable machine, somehow managing to contain a lot of coffee. They quickly retraced their steps to find their way back to the Uniposers.

Sasha walked around the corner and saw that Qwark and Tehctar were awake, sitting in their chairs and waiting for their coffee. They all cheered when they saw the guard and Sasha coming with the machine, and they all lined up to get their coffee. The Uniposers all sat back down and began to converse contently with their proper beverage, and only Tehctar noticed Angela coming from the other way, looking quite exhausted.

"Where have you been, Angela?" asked Tehctar, even more suspicious than ever. Angela noticed that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her answer.

"I was just in the Unipose, doing a few more repairs and checking the progress," said Angela. "No need to be suspicious." She grabbed a mug from the table and poured herself a cup of coffee, and started to drink it heavily, but spat it out in shock when she heard a voice which startled her.

"Angela, where is Clank?" yelled Ratchet, who had just opened the door to the bedroom, finally siding with Tehctar for once. "I noticed that when I woke up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, both of your beds were unoccupied!"

"Actually," said Angela, being quite calm although Ratchet just yelled at her. "I remember that when I was walking to the Unipose, I saw Clank with a bunch of guards. I think they were talking about an adult robot magazine they had found, so I guess you know what Clank is doing at the moment."

"Ha-ha," said Ratchet, feeling a little embarrassed for yelling at Angela. "I always knew Clank was a kinky son of a-Oooh! Coffee!" He walked over and poured himself a cup as Angela laughed at what Ratchet was going to say before being distracted by the coffee.

"It's not like he was captured and thrown in prison or anything, right?" joked Angela, sparking a memory into Sasha's head.

"DAD!" she yelled before dropping her mug on the floor, breaking it, and then running off to search for the prison cells. The Uniposers realised that she would need their help and ran after her, but Tehctar quickly slowed down while going through a corridor and motioned for a group of guards to direct them to the Galactic President. The guards took the lead and the Uniposers followed, until they reached a group of stairs. Sasha slowly walked down the staircase, which turned left and came out into a dungeon. There were cobwebs in the corners and it was bare, except for a wooden table, a window showing nothing but darkness and a Cazare stuck trapped in chains.

"Dad!" she repeated, as she continued down the stairs until she reached the floor, and then quickly ran over to her father and wrapped her arms around his body.

"Sasha!" he weakly called out, trying to hug his daughter, for whom he hadn't seen for so long, but was chained to the wall. Sasha noticed what her father was trying to do, and quickly let go of him and whipped out her counterpart's blaster which she had taken in memory of her, and then fired it at the two cuffs. The Galactic President's arms were red and sore, but he still managed to get the strength he needed to embrace his daughter in a loving hug.

The other Uniposers walked down the stairs and saw Sasha in the Galactic President's arms, and Ratchet was glad to see a familiar face that wasn't purple. However, the distinct scar remained on the Scarzare's cheek, as the cloning facility used that DNA to create a new copy. Sasha let go of the Galactic President, and helped him up, smiling because she was re-united with her father.

"Sasha, I'm so glad you are back with your father!" exclaimed Talwyn, who ran down the staircase and tackled Sasha in a hug, causing the weak Galactic President to lose his balance and fall.

"Sorry, sir," she said, picking Sasha and herself back up, and feeling guilty for letting the Galactic President fall. Even though he wasn't the ruler of Polaris or Woldgon, she still felt that he had a type of authority here.

"It's nothing compared to what those fiends did to me," said the Galactic President, clutching his arm and managing to stand back up. "If was the president of this galaxy, then I would take out the Villainous Alliance immediately. If you are wondering why that clone took me, it was simple. Before the VA knew that the clone betrayed them, they let him take his counterpart along to try and deal with peaceful authorities that came near. But instead he imprisoned me, as part of a backup plan in case he died and needed another clone to take his leadership. Of course, the soldiers hated him so they never did it."

"Well that makes perfect sense, and we already knew that the soldiers hated the Scarzare because they are helping us escape the planet, along with them," said Ratchet, supporting the unbalanced President.

"Say what?" the Galactic President asked, almost falling over again. "The Scar…za…?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Talwyn. "It's the clone's nickname, because he's basically a Cazare, but has a scar, so…Scarzare!"

The Galactic President smiled, before he started walking with Ratchet supporting him, and they all carefully exited the dungeon, making sure the President didn't trip as they went up. During the second day, they began healing the President, and continued their repairs. They gathered the broken parts to the Unipose while Angela welded them on and during that time, a group of soldiers had found Aphelion and brought it in to the hangar. Unfortunately, Aphelion was out of use because it had used up all of it's fuel keeping the Unipose in the air.

Finally, after much hard work from the Uniposers, Angela and the soldiers, the Unipose was finally repaired and ready to take off.

"We did it," said Tehctar, standing next to the others, looking at how undamaged the Unipose looked after two days. His smile turned to a shocked wide-open mouth when he realised that he had set up cameras to check Angela's work. Not to raise any suspicious, he casually walked in and quickly tore the camera down, before any of the others arrived and saw what he was doing.

"I wonder when Clank is going to come out of hiding…" started Ratchet as Tehctar began to walk off casually to the engine room until he could not longer hear Ratchet's voice. He opened the now-repaired trapdoor and climbed down the ladder, before quickly grabbing the camera and slowly coming back up to give time for the Uniposers to move out of the cockpit.

When he came back up, to his advantage, everyone was resting their bodies in the dining room after a long days work and Tehctar then conspicuously walked back into the cockpit with the two tiny circular cameras and hooked them up to the Holo-video system. He checked the cockpit camera and sped through most of the recording, but stopped when something caught his eye.

After many minutes of no-one in the cockpit, obviously sleeping, he saw Angela enter the Unipose and look around, and smiled when no-one was to be seen. She then opened the panel below the steering wheel and took out the IEFC, and replaced it with a black cuboid. Tehctar was completely shocked and then paused the video, before trying to open the same panel, but it was tightly stuck, obviously by Angela who didn't want anyone to find the cuboid and take it out.

Tehctar had a feeling that she placed a bomb inside which would explode when the engine was started and continued to watch the video. It showed Angela getting distracted and shocked by something which Tehctar couldn't see, and his eyes turned wide when he saw Clank come into view. They argued inaudibly for a while before Clank ran off and Angela chased him. A few moments later, it showed Angela dragging an unconscious Clank through the cockpit and disappearing into the weapons room.

Tehctar didn't bother checking the engine room camera, because he had all the evidence he needed. He then decided to come up with an excuse to search the dining room, as he was really going to look for Clank, but didn't want Angela to know. He sighed himself and tried to control his heartbeat, which was beating out a samba, and then entered the dining room, where the Uniposers were all chatting, unaware of the horror Tehctar had seen.

"If you'll excuse me, guys," began Tehctar, putting on his best relaxed attitude. "I'm just going to pop around to look for my old Vid-comic, I have seem to lost it, but I knew it wasn't damaged in the crash because I saw when I was scrambling out of the crashed Unipose." Everyone nodded, not really listening, except for Angela who watched Tehctar cautiously, wondering if he would find where she hid Clank.

"Hey, Ratchet," said Tehctar, after not being able to find "his Vid-comic" anywhere. "Can you start the engine for me, just to check that it's running." He had seemingly completely forgotten about the black cuboid because of his desperation to find Clank.

"Sure," said Ratchet, who stood up and left the room as Angela smiled evilly. She didn't notice Tehctar opening the trapdoor again and climbing downwards as she got up and slowly walked to the cockpit as well, noticing Ratchet looking for the place to start the engine, and she took this time to walk out of the Unipose, lock the door and staple it with strong bolts so they couldn't get out, and then got a safe distance away.

Tehctar inspected the engines to make sure nothing was wrong with them and still had forgotten about the black cuboid inside the fuel system. He opened the engine on the left and saw nothing that wasn't out of sorts. Even after checking it thoroughly there was still nothing. His head was burning from the residual heat of the left engine, and decided to check the right engine later, but stopped when he saw a shine of silver through one of the slits.

He opened the right engine fearfully and was shocked when he saw the unconscious body of Clank sitting in the engine and was directly in the firing line of being melted by the engine's heat when it was turned on. Immediately, he remembered the bomb and then grabbed Clank and climbed desperately up the ladder, before reaching the top and alarming the other Uniposers with Clank's body. Tehctar ran into the cockpit and saw Ratchet, about to grab the engine switch and pull it down.

* * *

Ratchet felt a sharp force pulling him to the ground and then realised that Tehctar had tackled him, trying to prevent him from doing something. He let Ratchet go and then immediately threw Clank carelessly into his arms, before crawling over to the panel and opening it, grabbing a pair of wire-cutters and began to try and disarm the black cuboid, as it needed power from the Unipose to explode. He had experience in this while doing a safety course, and knew to cut the wires in this order: yellow, red, blue, red, red, yellow, blue.

"Angela has already left!" he yelled to Ratchet, who was mumbling questions incoherently. "Get out of here! She put Clank in the engines and a bomb in the fuel core! She's going to blow it up manually if I don't disarm it soon!" Ratchet understood Tehctar's quick thinking and then stood up and tried to open the door, but it was stuck shut. Tehctar had already carefully cut a yellow, red and blue wire as Ratchet pulled out his Modifigun and blasted it at the door, shooting through, but not opening it.

Angela noticed the gunshots being fired and knew that they were trying to escape, and that her plan to trick them into blowing themselves up had failed. But she had the bomb trigger ready in her hands and only needed to press it to end it all. She opened the lid to the trigger as Tehctar cut the two red wires left. He cut the yellow one quickly, and tried to cut the blue one, but his hands were too shaky from the fear of being too late.

Tehctar smartened himself up and desperately grabbed the blue wire and snipped it, before protecting his head because he thought it was too late. After a few seconds, he looked back and the black cuboid was resting on the ground, completely immobile. He pulled himself up and looked through the window and saw Angela standing near the door, desperately pressing a button, but to no avail.

Ratchet and Qwark had set up a battering ram and were pounding at the door, before finally managing to break through. Tehctar motioned for the Uniposers to stay inside while he went out to confront Angela. He pushed Ratchet and Qwark out of the way, and they helped Talwyn and Sasha try to revive Clank, while Tehctar walked down the stairs and then appeared at the bottom. Angela walked a few steps forwards before stopping and grinning evilly.

"I knew you'd show your true colours…MASTER!" exclaimed Tehctar. His chosen being spoke was a curse to Master, and Angela was suddenly enveloped in a magenta glow, before transforming into the evil pink blob who had planned this all along. The Uniposers gasped, but Ratchet wasn't completely shocked because he had knew something was fishy, but wondered why Angela had appeared on the tracking device, wherever it was.

Tehctar stared at Master, who said nothing, but instead stood frozen there. After a while, Tehctar felt uncomfortable and began to move away but Master moved his body so that a tentacle came out and slapped Tehctar, sending him across the room, slamming him into the body. Master pulled it back and then turned into a cheetah and ran off into the corridor, running past the scared guards at extreme speeds.

Talwyn quickly ran down the stairs like she was sliding on a ramp and then quickly rushed over to Tehctar, who was lying on the ground next to the wall, still conscious, but in pain. Sasha joined her and sat him upright, and saw that he was delirious and couldn't see much. She tried slapping his face lightly to get him to get out of the daze, and he actually managed to understand what Talwyn kept repeated.

"Are you okay, Tehctar? Tehctar, you okay?" she repeatedly asked, until Tehctar nodded with his eyes barely open and his tongue flopping out. He nodded and she smiled, knowing that Master didn't do much damage. "Sasha. Get Tehctar into the Unipose and make sure he is okay. Ratchet, Qwark. Try reviving Clank and then repair the door to the Aphelion. But I'm not sure what we're going to do without a fuel core."

"Did someone say fuel core?" asked the Major, who had just opened the door as Talwyn was speaking and while everyone was scrambling to do their jobs. "My word. What happened to the boy?"

"The shape-shifter tricked him and then slammed him against the wall."

"Ah, yes. I saw the cheetah running through the corridors. I guess he is really a "cheater", huh? Now, about the fuel core. I have gotten knowledge from the commanders that the Scarzare kept an Intensive Enviromental Fuel Core in a safe, ready for use whenever he needs to take a transport, as he will never stop at any fuel stations."

"Where is the safe?" asked Talwyn, pulling her gun out, ready to blast something to smithereens.

"I heard that the safe was buried under the Scarzare's throne room, and a hidden trapdoor covers the hole. You shouldn't use your gun to open the safe, because it could damage the fuel core. Instead, I have gathered a team of soldiers trained in safe-cracking to open it for you."

"Great," said Talwyn, ready to get off the horrible planet. "Let's go." Her and the Major left together, going to meet up with the soldiers. Ratchet had just finished reviving Clank, and then hugged his friend, before moving onto the door, because they didn't want to stay on the planet for long.

He and Qwark then started removing the staples from the door, but were disrupted by a ship passing by. It was one of the sleek orange fighters used by the guards, and Ratchet was shocked to see Nefarious, Vox, Otto, Drek and Tachyon, all sitting inside, ready to leave the planet. Nefarious opened the shield up and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"GOOD LUCK LEAVING, SUCKERS!" he yelled, while poking his metallic tongue out. "YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO LEAVE BECAUSE THERE ARE NO FUEL CORES ANYWHERE. WE STOLE YOURS AND NOW OUR LEADER IS POWERING THE SHIP UP. SO LONG!" He cackled as the shield closed back in and then the ship flew off into the distance, unleashing a transparent yellow light behind it, before disappearing completely.

Ratchet grabbed a screw in anger and chucked it into the sky, hurtling towards the transparent yellow light and bouncing off of it, burning it and making it fall towards the ocean. Talwyn was confused and then hopped into a fighter and turned the auto-pilot on, telling it to rocket out of the planet. She quickly jumped out before the engine started up and it flew out of the hangar and into the sky, desperately trying to break through the yellow shield, but instead just got burned and burned until it exploded.

Chapter 20 Preview

_The Major heard Sasha's footsteps getting closer and closer, so he walked back to the trapdoor and bent over, putting his hand down. Sasha stopped at the trapdoor, and looked up to see the Major's yellow glove, and she was just able to reach it by jumping, before being pulled up by him. Sasha picked herself up once she had reached the top and looked to see the soldiers preparing to fire their missiles. The Major turned back to the soldiers, ready to give them the order._

"_FIRE!" he yelled, and soon, missiles and long-range bullets all fired up into the sky, hitting the trapper dome simultaneously. The ammunition battled against the trapper dome with all their strength, and Sasha was feeling a little ill because she thought that it wouldn't work. To her surprise, one laser made it's way through the dome and the seperating particles tried to escape but instead hit another laser and soon, the whole trapper dome started crackling and disintegrating until the whole thing collapsed into a sky of fireworks…_


	20. Trapper Dome

_Finding Angela_

_After the Scarzare and Sasha2 are killed, the Uniposers are stuck in the base after the power is cut and the Unipose is wrecked. At the same time, the power outage frees the Villainous Alliance from their imprisonment, and they are told by Master to find a fighter and prepare to escape the planet to go to the Backup Base. The Uniposers have now gained the trust of the soldiers and find Angela unconscious inside the base. From the start, Tehctar is suspicious of her. While repairing the Unipose, Sasha finds her father locked up in a cell and she brings him into the Unipose for healing. Tehctar's suspicions are proven when he finds out that she disabled Clank and placed a bomb in the Unipose. He manages to foil her plan, but is injured when she is revealed to be Master and attacked by him before he ran off. They manage to fully repair the Unipose, but with no fuel core, just as they were about to find a new one, the VA escapes the planet and leaves a forcefield behind it, trapping the Uniposers…_

_Chapter 20: __Trapper Dome_

"Looks like a triple-force trapper dome," said Talwyn, tapping away at a touchpad, standing near the edge of the hangar and constantly looking up to observe the shield with a naked eye. It was only an hour after the Villainous Alliance had left the planet, and during that time Talwyn and the Major had returned with an Intensive Environmental Fuel Core, and helped Tehctar install it, but had to steal a few wires from one of the wrecked fighters around them to make it work.

"I remember the Gleathians once placed a trapper dome around their capital city to protect it while they used the other cities as battlefields," said the Galactic President, who had cleared up a lot from his weakness and had supplied Talwyn with the touchpad. He was standing next to Talwyn, inspecting the dome as well but occasionally looking over to the touchpad to see the readings. "But they only had a single-force dome, and the invading Rundalian forces managed to break through. I read all of this in a Holo-book from when I was studying the history of the galaxy during my time running as president."

"Really?" asked Talwyn blandly, who hadn't been listening to the President's story because she was too busy trying to work out a way to pull it down. The Galactic President noticed that she was ignoring a higher authority, but because he understood why, he didn't complain. Ratchet had just finished installing the new door to the Unipose, and he and Qwark (who was checking the wreckage of fighters for vitals) both walked over to Talwyn to see her progress.

"So how's it going with the shield thingy?" asked Ratchet, who was still approaching the duo, and he noticed that Talwyn was still tapping madly at the touchpad. He had a bit of dirt on his cheeks and fingertips from installing the door, and his body smelled of oil, which grabbed Talwyn's attention. Talwyn had changed her clothes while in the Unipose, and she now wore a gold shirt, with a white sash-like stripe through it, and wore small golden shoulder blades (they were originally green, but she painted them). For her pants, she wore thick brown shorts, which one pant leg running to her knees, and had white stockings on, going just above the knees and left only a tiny patch of skin visible.

"Ratchet!" she yelled when she smelled the oil on his body, and suddenly threw the touchpad away, hitting Qwark's hands and he fumbled with it for a bit before falling backwards trying to catch it. Talwyn turned around and immediately tackled Ratchet onto the ground in a tight embrace. "I haven't gotten a chance to hug you for a while!" Her tone of voice immediately changed after this. "Unfortunately, we haven't been able to figure out how to disable the shield. But that means more alone time for us!"

"Ummm, okay," said Ratchet, not entirely comfortable with Talwyn talking about them in public. "But we get out of here as soon as possible, because the Villainous Alliance is getting away, and I bet they have something up their sleeves." Talwyn let go of Ratchet and nodded, because saving the universe was more important than their relationship.

Talwyn took the touchpad back from Qwark (who was still on the ground) and continued to search for a counter. Ratchet stood up and turned to walk away, but saw Sasha outside the Unipose, having witnessed the action earlier and was leaning against it, rubbing her arm nervously. Ratchet felt guilty, because he loved Sasha too and wanted to be with her as well, but Talwyn seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Feeling pity for her, he walked to talk to her.

"Hey, Sasha," he started, getting her attention. "You okay?" Sasha looked down and sighed.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said, thinking about her entire life. "Now that I've found my father I'm not completely lonely." She had changed her clothes as well. She was now wearing a knee-low silk dress, cut into a V at the front. Its hem was painted with silver, and she wore two thick gold bracelets around her arms. Sasha had long black tight silk trousers, with a weird indescribable blue pattern near the top, and she wore purple ankle-high boots on her feet sporting Velcro.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ratchet, startling Sasha a bit. "Who said that I had chosen Talwyn? She was the one who rugby-tackled me!" This embarrassing comment caused Sasha to look back up and smile. "Plus, did I forget to mention that your new clothes make you look prettier than before!" Sasha quickly looked around to see if any was watching, but found that Qwark had already went back into the Unipose and the President and Talwyn were observing the trapper dome.

She turned back to Ratchet and pulled him closer and closer until their lips locked into a combination of bliss. Talwyn was still tapping away at the touchpad again, but turned around in curiosity, and saw the lips of Sasha and Ratchet touching. Her eyes turned fiery, but she decided not to complain because that would lower the chance of winning the contest she had already lost.

Sasha let go of Ratchet with both her hands and her lips just before Tehctar exited the Unipose stiffly, and Ratchet laughed when he saw his body covered in oil from the engine and his unamused look on his face. Tehctar turned and walked to Ratchet, before slapping him with a greasy hand, getting a palm print on his face. Talwyn was moping and turned back to see what all the commotion was and burst out into laughter when he saw Tehctar's embarrassment. Qwark turned to see what Talwyn was laughing at and joined her, while the President was unamused and took the touchpad from the crying Talwyn.

"Okay, listen up everyone!" boomed the President, making everyone stop laughing and listen. "I think that we need get some rest and then tomorrow we'll continue to try and solve this predicament." Sasha nodded, followed by Ratchet and soon everyone was nodding. Ratchet was the first one to enter the Unipose and he ran through the rooms until he came to the beds, and then immediately jumped up on the top-left one, seeming energetic as he placed his Wrench on it so no-one would take the bed and hopped back down.

"I'm getting top-left," said both Talwyn and Sasha at the same time, running into the room before anyone else and they sneered at each other, before pulling the two other joined beds out and laying on the them, ready to sleep. The other Uniposers finally walked into the room, minus Tehctar who was washing himself off in the showers inside the base. Ratchet noticed that the Galactic President wasn't used to the ship, and that he would have to go back to Solana.

"Hey, Mr. President, sir," began Ratchet nervously. Even though he had a good history with the Galactic President, he was still nervous whenever he had to speak to him. "When we finally get off this planet, I'll fly you back to Solana, okay?" The President heard his every word and turned around with a smile on his face.

"Well thanks, Ratchet," said the Galactic President. "I suppose you must be driver because after all, you are Secret Agent Clank's chauffer." Ratchet face turned red with both embarrassment and anger as the President laughed. "I'm kidding, you're alright. Speaking of taking me, when are you going to put that scouter ship of yours on top of this thing?"

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Ratchet, waving his arms around like a weirdo. "I COMPLETELY FORGOT!" Without thinking about anything, he turned and ran out of the room, through the weapons room, through the cockpit and out the door, running straight forward to Aphelion. He stopped and grabbed his hands against the side, looking in, before slowly jumping inside. He pulled the engine switch, and it tried to start up, but unfortunately there was no fuel left in the tank.

Ratchet noticed that there was undamaged fighter near the entrance to the hangar, so he hopped out of Aphelion and ran straight over to the fighter, and hopped in. To Ratchet, it felt weird being in a completely new ship, and it took some while to find the fuel core. It was a large fuel tank like Aphelion, except this one was full. When Ratchet picked it up, he noticed that it was heavy as well, and had to drop it outside the fighter and drag it with him to Aphelion.

Talwyn heard the clang of the fuel tank dropping on the ground and peeked outside, before smiling when she saw her strong Ratchet pulling the fuel tank along. He propped it up against the side of Aphelion and dragged it up before pushing it onto his seat. Ratchet pushed himself up against the edge and used physics to make him tip and fall in, before grabbing the fuel tank and replacing the empty one with ease, and felt much better holding a light empty tank.

Ratchet wiped his hands against his armor and then jumped out of the Aphelion, throwing the empty fuel tank away. He looked around and saw that everything was still, and then walked forward towards the Unipose, his footsteps making clanging sounds as he went. He stopped again when he saw the door to the hangar open, and then Tehctar came back in, wearing pajamas and holding his wet clothes after taking a shower.

"Hey, Tehctar!" yelled Ratchet, and Tehctar moved forward towards him. "We could use your help to get out of here, because even though we have enough time to find them before they do any serious damage, we have no idea where they went and we may have enough time to see them in the distance."

"No need," said Tehctar, before taking Ratchet's tracking device off his belt and showing it too him, and it had a green dot moving slowly away towards the middle of the Woldgon Galaxy. "I was suspicious of Angela, all right. So I decided to track her and now we know exactly where they are." Ratchet hugged Tehctar in joy, leaving him gobsmacked, and didn't even realise that Ratchet had already run inside to sleep in peace. Tehctar smiled and then decided to join him, and then tomorrow would be a brand new day.

* * *

Sasha woke up, startled at the sound of footsteps and murmurs inside. She was afraid they might enter the Unipose, so she softly jumped down from her bed and made sure no-one else was awake, before tip-toeing into the cockpit. She ducked down in case someone saw her through the window, and then crawled to the door. It was securely locked, but she still didn't feel right, so she pushed a nearby Holo-book cupboard behind the door, so no-one could use brute strength to get in.

She checked the bookcase, and then pressed her ear against it, hearing more footsteps and murmurs but they weren't close. She sighed, still worried but a little relaxed, and then crawled along the floor again until she came back to the beds, and then climbed up and laid back, holding the blanket up to her nose in fear. The footsteps stopped but the murmurs got louder and there were even more. Sasha checked the others but they weren't stirred by the voices.

She sighed when the murmurs stopped and footsteps started again, but getting dimmer and dimmer every second until they finally stopped. Carefully, she jumped out of the bed again and tip-toed once again back to the door, and slowly moved the Holo-book cupboard with all her strength, and then slowly unlocked the door. She looked out of the windows and saw that there was no-one in sight, but the door to the corridors was not visible, so she would have to go out to see.  
Paranoid, Sasha walked back to the weapons room and pulled the Modifigun off the top shelf, and tried to hold it, but it was too heavy and it dropped on the ground with loud "BANG!" She poked her head in the other room, and thankfully no-one had awoken, and she just kicked the Modifigun under the shelves as to not risk it. Instead, she took the Saw Blaster and Windy Shield which were only light, and then placed them on both wrists, before slowly opening the door to the outside.

She quickly looked both ways, spotting no-one, although she did notice that some of the wreckage had been taken or moved to a different spot. She walked left and sidled along the edge of the Unipose. Sasha came to the engines and peeked at the door, and saw that no-one was there, although the door was still open. Her heartbeat elevated and she wanted to go back inside, but then the worst happened. She needed to go to the toilet block on the other side of the base.

Sasha quickly ran lightly to the door, backing herself up against the edge and looking in, noticing no-one was there. She was wearing a pink silky dress at the moment which she regularly went to bed in, as silk was her favourite material and was what her costume was made out of. She noticed she was barefooted, but didn't care, as she only needed to go to the toilet and back.

Quickly Sasha ran down the corridor, sidling occasionally when she thought she heard a sound. Her urge to go to the toilet got worse and worse, but she kept fighting it as she ran. Finally, she came to her first intersection and opened the door, but found that the room was empty. This was a little unusual but it happened sometimes, and she was sure that there would be guards as she made her way to the toilet block.

As Sasha passed the next three intersections she was shocked to see that the entire place was empty. No guards, no weapons, no enemies, no dead bodies or anything was inside the complex. She kept wondering as she walked through another corridor and was startled when she heard footsteps above. She looked up at the ceiling and saw that there was trapdoor above her, with a ladder attached to it, but it hadn't been lowered.

Using her acrobatic skills, Sasha turned and ran backwards to get a running start, before charging forward and jumping towards the closet, bouncing off with her legs and desperately stretching her arms out as she fell, and knew that she had failed her jump, but was shocked to feel her body stop. She opened her eyes and looked up, seeing the Major with his arms outstretched, holding Sasha's arm and smiling.

Sasha smiled back as he flawlessly used his arms to pull Sasha up, and helped her sit up on the edge and then let her move her body to stand up. She looked out saw that she was on top of the center portion of the base, right near the throne room and saw hundreds of soldiers all over the spider web base, holding some sort of missile or long-range weaponry aiming up to the trapper dome.

"You are probably wondering why these soldiers are pointing weaponry upwards," started the Major, breaking the silence that had washed over the dark, purple sky, twinkling with white stars turned yellow due the trapper dome. "I had dealt with these trapper domes before when I was working with the Rundalians, but it took months to disable it because of the mathematical precisions needed to hack into the system and take it down. But after the scientists of Rundalia had disabled it, we realised that we could have saved much time if we had just used brute strength. So we did some more tests on it and found out that if we had a whole bunch of weaponry aimed at every part of the trapper dome, no particle could escape to anywhere and would eventually disintegrate from being trapped. Also, you may have been woken by the soldiers and me rummaging through the hangar for weapons." Sasha nodded and understood his every word, but then realised that there were no red commanders around, even though she saw at least six when the Scarzare tried to capture them.

"What happened to the commanders?" asked Sasha, causing the Major to turn away from her. "Is there is anyone you obey?"

"I feared you'd ask that question," said the Major, sighing and looking down. "The thing is, when the Scarzare slipped into the ocean the commanders weren't far behind after being knocked out by you and your friends. After you jumped into the ocean with them, the commanders followed, but didn't show up after that. I guessed they were washed away, or maybe their armour was too heavy and drowned."

Sasha felt guilty for asking, and wanted to leave, but she wanted to see the soldiers firing at the trapper dome, and she desperately hoped it would work. But her bladder got the better of her, and the Major turned his head back and saw her legs quivering, before nodding and she jumped back down into the corridor and ran straight for the toilet block. Eventually, she came to a door which said "Soldier's Restroom", but didn't care if she wasn't a soldier, and guessed that there wasn't a "little ladies room", so she entered.

The inside was surprising clean, with four urinals lined up on the right wall, with three cubicles and one shower (which she guessed Tehctar used) on the left wall. At the back wall was a sink lining up along the edge and three taps, with a giant mirror on the wall above. On the fourth wall was a machine where the user places their hands in, and is then scrubbed with a sort of rough, dry ooze, drying instantly, and Sasha entered the first cubicle, but was disgusted when she came out five seconds later and then entered the middle stall, which was clean.

About forty-five seconds later, a sucking sound was heard by Sasha, which was not a surprise to her because all toilets in all the galaxies used a plasma liquid which grabs the waste instead of flushing it with water. She opened the door and immediately went over to the sink to wash her hands. She always washed her hands whenever she went to the toilet because her father taught her when she was young.

Sasha looked in the mirror while washing and frowning, wondering if Ratchet really thought that she was beautiful. She wasn't considered an eye-opener by the Cazares back on her home planet, Nygo, and boys usually ignored her, with some occasionally saying "hi" and nothing else. She wondered why at all Ratchet would think that she was beautiful when Talwyn would obviously be an eye-opener, and she just guessed that Cazares had a higher standard of beauty, although she still pondered.

After Sasha had finished washing her hands, she placed them in the machine on the wall and was used to the ticklish scrubbing motion the dried-up ooze utilised, although she remembered that when she was little, she'd always laugh from being ticklish and never dried her hands properly. Quickly, she wanted to get to the firing ceremony, so she ran out of the restroom in a flash and sprinted down the corridors, remembering the path back.

The Major heard Sasha's footsteps getting closer and closer, so he walked back to the trapdoor and bent over, putting his hand down. Sasha stopped at the trapdoor, and looked up to see the Major's yellow glove, and she was just able to reach it by jumping, before being pulled up by him. Sasha picked herself up once she had reached the top and looked to see the soldiers preparing to fire their missiles. The Major turned back to the soldiers, ready to give them the order.

"FIRE!" he yelled, and soon, missiles and long-range bullets all fired up into the sky, hitting the trapper dome simultaneously. The ammunition battled against the trapper dome with all their strength, and Sasha was feeling a little ill because she thought that it wouldn't work. To her surprise, one laser made its way through the dome and the separating particles tried to escape but instead hit another laser and soon, the whole trapper dome started crackling and disintegrating until the whole thing collapsed into a sky of fireworks…

* * *

Morning came quickly for Sasha who slept peacefully and unworried, and was now content with going back into space, and this time, with her father. However, she never awoke from her sleep until much later in the day, and this time Qwark was the first one to wake up, usually because his body was so used to waking up early and going down to Helga's exercise course for the morning run. He missed the screaming angry voice dearly, and wished Helga would come aboard the Unipose.

He sat on the edge of the bed, which was the lower right one (all alone), and looked up at the other Uniposers, seeing that they were still sleeping contently, with Ratchet snoring much to the annoyance of the others when they tried to go to sleep. Qwark managed to get up, and then stretched himself to make his body feel less tired, before walking into the weapons room and then into the cockpit, looking for something to do.

He walked back and forth through the three rooms multiple times, with the other Uniposers still sleeping peacefully, and he then decided to go outside. Qwark walked back into the cockpit and unlocked the door, before opening it and walking down the stairs. Once he came to the bottom, he saw that the fighter exit was open as always, and decided to check on how the trapper dome was going.

Qwark kicked tiny scraps of metal on the ground as he walked towards the edge of the hangar, mumbling that the trapper dome was obviously going to be still there. He finished kicking another scrap of junk over the edge and into the water not far below, and then looked up and lost his balance when he saw a clear sky. He almost fell backwards, and then almost fell off the edge of the hangar, but managed to keep himself on the ground and made sure he was standing, before slowly moving away.

Qwark regained total control of his balance, and then swivelled around to wake the others. He ran desperately towards the Unipose, using his training from Helga, and then almost made it, before tripping on a solid piece of metal. He looked up and growled in anger, before picking up the large piece of metal and throwing it, not aiming anywhere and watched as it hit the side of the Unipose with a loud bang!

Qwark was sure that it wouldn't dent the ship at all, but it would definitely wake up the others. He quietly walked up the stairs and tip-toed through the cockpit, and looked through the door to the weapons room to see through to the door to the dining room. He saw a rustle in the sheets of one of the beds, and upon closer inspection it was Clank on the top right bed, rolling around, stirred, but hadn't quite awoken yet.

Qwark began to slowly walk towards his bed, because he was too tired to explain and talk about the trapper dome and he had no idea what happened. Slowly, he kept tip-toeing, and looked around, before laying his eyes on Tehctar who was sleeping peacefully. More than ever, he wondered who he was, and knew that thanks to the prophecy he had been told, he knew that Tehctar's identity will finally be revealed. He searched the corners of his mind to remember the prophecy, until he finally pieced it together.

"_Once you finally become true, it's already the end for you…"_

Qwark didn't care if he got it wrong, and instead he just wanted this nightmare to be over. He thought that once they escape the Scarzare's base, it would be over, but the Villainous Alliance had to come back with another plan, and he would have to help take them down again. He only wished that it would end soon. Finally reached his bed after moving extremely slow, he slowly crawled in like a snake in cold weather, and then curled himself over and pretended to be asleep.

Soon after Qwark pretended to go to sleep, Ratchet finally stirred and woke very quickly, hearing Clank rustling in amongst his bed. He sat up and looked at his friend, who had finally awoken, and was climbing out of bed. Ratchet was still very tired and when he tried to hop off his bed, he fell flat on the floor. Clank saw what happened and reached out a hand to help Ratchet up. He took it and got up to join Clank and looked around, before looking at each other and reading each other's mind. _The trapper dome._

Ratchet bursted out of the Unipose, followed by Clank, and they sprinted across the hangar before stopping at the edge, and looked up. Ratchet almost fell in shock, while Clank laughed in disbelief. Ratchet turned to Clank, who laughed at his face, and they then both sang in a chorus of laughter, startling the others except for the Galactic President awake, apart from Qwark who was already awake.

"WOOHOO!" yelled Ratchet, looking up at the sky, before being joined by the Uniposers, tired but still had enough energy to stare at the now gone trapper dome and celebrate. Sasha smiled away from the dancing crowd, knowing that the soldiers had truly succeeded, and that the trapper dome hadn't repaired itself. The Major entered the hangar, having heard the cheering, and approached the crowd with a cheeky smile on his face.

"You may thank me and my soldiers," said the Major, and Talwyn looked at him in disbelief, before squashing through the crowd and hugging him, as a deep thanks for what he had done for them. The Major accepted the hug, and then lightly pushed Talwyn off. "You better get ready to leave this place. My troopers and I will stay and try to restore the rest of the power, as we are fighters and we stick together like glue." Tehctar started to get teary-eyed at the Major's bravery.

"Goodbye, Major," said Tehctar, before saluting him and watching him leave to fend for himself in the cruel destroyed base. He turned to the other Uniposers behind him, and then smiled, before running off back into the Unipose, preparing the engines. Sasha and the rest of the Uniposers followed him in, and noticed him busily working at the controls. "Qwark, Sasha2, can you please get in the co-pilots seats?"

Qwark shrugged to the others, and sat in the seat furthest from the door, and Tehctar quickly checked the seats, and noticed that Sasha2 wasn't there. "Sasha2, where are-" He remembered Sasha2's fate and then became quiet and focused himself tapping away at the controls. The rest of the Uniposers had already left the cockpit into the dining room, except for Sasha, who watched Tehctar pulled out Ratchet's tracking device and attaching it to the console, allow it to lock its co-ordinates.

Sasha smiled lightly, and then moved into the dining room and grabbed her green silk dress and the rest of her clothes, and saw that Talwyn had moved into the cubicle to change. She waited patiently and watched as Ratchet, Clank and Qwark played another board game, making up a song about their adventure as they went, although they seemed to change the lyrics all the time.

Talwyn exited the cubicle in her golden metal shirt, and Sasha moved inside and changed out of her pajamas into her costume. She felt the engines whirring and the legs of the ship retracting, and knew that the Unipose had begun to take flight. She could feel the ship turning around slowly, and could imagine the squad of soldiers and the Major, waving Tehctar and Qwark, as they slowly flew out of the hangar.

Once Sasha had finished changing, she quickly ran into the cockpit and invited herself to be the second co-pilot, and watched as the window displayed a view of the hangar disappearing and the bright blue sky appearing, shining as they were finally back home, in space and drifting in the Unipose. Her joy became even greater when the beautiful blue sky disappeared and the awe-inspiring black sky filled with tiny shining white dots and huge multi-coloured planets filled her vision.

"This is beautiful. This is where we belong," said Sasha, not even realising that the rest of the Uniposers (except for the President who was still sleeping) who were once in the dining room were now crowded behind her, gazing at the amazing view they had so dearly missed. "Sasha2 would've wanted to see this, but unfortunately she can't. Who knows? She may just be an invisible celestial body floating around space, looking at it in its entirety, and will probably feel happy for us for moving on..."

Little did Sasha know that Sasha2's invisible eyes were watching them floating through the beautiful space, happy to be in the afterlife…

* * *

Nefarious and two other Blarg scientists stood before their experiment, chained to the table like a dead body. The scientists were powering up antennas placed around the table, ready to give the experiment life, and to finally ensure their victory against the Uniposers. Nefarious smiled in glee, standing in the middle of grey room (glowing red from the panels) filled with an "L" of consoles and a table standing upright at the end. At this moment, another scientist entered the room.

"Doctor, we have a report on the Uniposer's progress," he said in a bold voice. "We have now confirmed that they have destroyed the cloned warrior and have now escaped from the base. They seem to be tracking us to our location." Nefarious grinned evilly.

"Good. They are following our every expectation." The Villainous Alliance had arrived on a warship built for them by Lawrence and his team of robots on Tanley after the cloning facility exploded. They were sure that the Uniposers would track them somehow, and they were now following their every command. The Villainous Alliance were lucky to find an allied warship supplied by Ertin Billius and they were now awaiting the Unipose's arrival. "Tell our troopers at the Backup Base to prepare the ultimate weapon. If this final experiment doesn't take them out, then we'll have to take them out with the universe at the same time."

"Yes, master," said the scientist, before turning around and leaving. Nefarious's face was horribly evil as the scientists in the room finished powering up the antennas and turned them on, sending electricity through the experiment's body, looking like they were killing it, but in fact they had given birth to something terrible. The Villainous Alliance had created a spare clone from when the Galactic President was still in their grasp, and put it into hibernation before storing it. Now that the Scarzare had failed, Nefarious made improvements to the spare copy, and now watched as the new Scarzare opened his red robotic eyes…

Chapter 21 Preview

"_Tehctar, help!" yelled Ratchet, but his voice was drowned out by Sasha and Talwyn's screams as the engine stopped and the lasers pushed them towards the nearby planet which Tehctar hadn't noticed at all during the battle. However, he quickly checked the database and was shocked to find that the planet was Grokley, a planet travelled to by Ratchet before they met._

_He looked up to see lasers pushing Aphelion, making it hit the planet's atmosphere and then suddenly gravity took hold and the ship plunged to the ground of the planet, out of Tehctar's sight. "Come on, Unipose, you can follow them!" He flawlessly tapped at the consoles like a blur and the ship started tracking Aphelion, and he then grabbed hold of the steering wheel and pulled it to the left, heading towards Grokley._


	21. Back to Grokley

_Rise of the Uniposers  
_

_After witnessing the Villainous Alliance escape from the Scarzare's base, they leave behind a trapper dome to keep the Uniposers locked in the base. After a whole day trying to figure out a way of destroying it to no avail, Sasha gets up in the middle of the night due to hearing voices and goes out to investigate. She stumbles upon the Major and his soldiers on the roof of the base, aiming all the weapons they have at the trapper dome, ready to destroy it after having experience with one before. The plan succeeds and the Uniposers wake up in the morning to find that the trapper dome is gone, and they blast off in the Unipose to follow the VA. Meanwhile, the VA boards on an allied warship and Nefarious enhances a copy of the Scarzare to defeat the Uniposers…_

_Chapter 21: Back to Grokley_

"Tehctar," said Talwyn, standing behind the pilot's seat as the Unipose passed Lavarti, still tracking the Villainous Alliance. Tehctar heard Talwyn's voice and swivelled around in his chair, casually smiling at her. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" Tehctar nodded once and quickly put the Unipose into autopilot, before getting up and following Talwyn into the weapons room.

"Yes, Talwyn?" he asked, making sure that both of the doors nearby were closed.

"Now that the Scarzare is defeated, do you think you would be able to show your true from now?" she asked, twiddling her thumbs nervously, knowing the identity of the ten year-old Cazarean.

"Well, I'm not sure," said Tehctar, checking the Holo-guise attached to his belt. "Although the Scarzare is dead, the bandits still have that tracking device which will tell our location immediately once I show my true form. For now, I'll stay like this." Talwyn hesitated for a moment, before finally nodding and exiting to the dining room. Tehctar thought about his future for a moment, and then heard Sasha shouting in the distance. He ran straight back into the cockpit, and saw Sasha gasping at a giant asteroid floating straight for the Unipose.

Tehctar jumped into his chair and used the momentum to swivel around and press a button to get out of autopilot and then took the wheel and turn it right. The Unipose started angling to the right and a bit downwards, with the bottom-left wing hit the asteroid, bumping the Unipose and causing Sasha to fall out of her chair. The hit caused it to direct itself towards another asteroid but Tehctar calmly gained control of the ship and avoided the other asteroid.

"Time to bring out the upgrade…" began Tehctar, grinning smugly.

"Upgrade? What upgrade?" asked Qwark, who had been quiet working at the consoles the whole time.

"This upgrade." Tehctar pulled a switch far enough for him to just reach, and a purple transparent shield appeared around the Unipose, except all of the power went out of commission, including the engines and the lights.

"Where the hell did you get a shield?" yelled Sasha in happy disbelief, staring at the asteroids bouncing off the bubble placed around the Unipose.

"In the middle of the night back at the Scarzare's base, I woke up and decided to have a midnight snack," said Tehctar, causing Sasha to roll her eyes, having to listen to another one of his stories. "I met the Major, who told me that he was able to weaken the trapper dome by harnessing some of the power into a piece of hardware which was strong enough to shield a ship from basically everything. Although all of the power had to be shutdown for it to work at its full power, this baby will keep us in the clear until the asteroids pass us. I wonder how he was able to fully destroy the trapper dome…"

"Never mind that, Tehctar," said Sasha, watching the blank readouts on the consoles. "But why didn't you tell us about it earlier?"

"I'm forgetful," answered Tehctar simply, smiling. He heard the door to the weapons room open and got stampeded by Ratchet, Clank, Talwyn and the Galactic President, all asking him incoherently about what happened.

"Fellas, please stop raping Tehctar," said Sasha, trying to get them off, and eventually succeeded, but left Tehctar exhausted. "Tehctar got a shield from the Major and he is now using it. There." Ratchet stared at her blankly, and she laughed, followed by Ratchet smirking happily, gazing at each other dreamily, before remembering about her father. "Tehctar, when are going to take daddy back to Solana?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that as well (told ya I'm forgetful). You and Ratchet can do it after we get out of this asteroid attack." Ratchet smiled at Sasha dirtily, with no-one else noticing except for Talwyn, fearing she was losing the battle again.

"Can I come too? I haven't been in Aphelion for a while," she asked anxiously. Ratchet stared at her blankly, alternating his stare between Sasha and Talwyn, and then decided it would be rude not too. "Fine. The more, the merrier." Sasha frowned, but understood what Ratchet was doing, and sat back down in her seat, hoping that they would be in the darkness for long.

"The asteroids are beginning to clear up," said Tehctar, preparing himself to turn off the shield and hearing Sasha mutter "YES!" under her breath. "I'm sure we'll be able to avoid these last ones." He pushed the switch forward and the shield disappeared, followed by the lights coming back on and the consoles and engines working again. Tehctar boosted the engines and moved up and down, left and right through the last tiny asteroids that were in their way, until the twinkling lights finally met them once again.

"Come on, Daddy, let's go!" yelled Sasha, jumping out of her chair and sprinting out of sight. Ratchet looked at both Talwyn and the Galactic President, and they ran out of the room as well, and once they entered the dining room they saw Sasha reaching up for the hatch to open and let the ladder, but to no avail. The Galactic President was tall and was easily able to open the hatch without breaking a sweat, and Sasha climbed her way up the ladder furiously, wanting to get back in Aphelion.

"I can't wait to see Aphelion…," muttered Talwyn, cautiously climbing up the ladder, but was still anxious none-the-less. Ratchet began climbing up the ladder after Talwyn, and became aroused when he looked up to see Talwyn's bottom wiggling at him as she climbed up. President Phyronix followed Ratchet up, and became disgusted when he accidentally looked up to Ratchet's tail wagging at him, even accidentally brushing on his cheek.

Sasha surfaced at the top of the ladder, and looked at the beautiful Aphelion, its console blinking, ready to fly once again. Sasha gasped at the amazing display, saw Talwyn surfacing, and quickly sat in the passenger's seat, in case Talwyn stole it and tried to anything with Ratchet. Talwyn smiled at the Aphelion's display, and even heard it snoring, meaning that it was obviously asleep from under-use. She saw that Sasha had stolen the passenger seat and reluctantly sat in the back, finding a few broken gadgets to play with.

"Ahh, the good old Aphelion," said Ratchet surfacing, activating the voice-activation mechanism and the screen in the middle turned on, with a picture of Ratchet from one of his birthdays showing up, and a loading bar showing that it was starting up. Ratchet sat in the pilot's seat and smiled to Sasha, who then moved to the back when she saw her father coming up last.

"Good morning, Ratchet," spoke Aphelion in a tired voice.

"Aphelion? You haven't spoken to me in ages!" exclaimed Ratchet, thinking that Aphelion's voice died from the explosion of the Villainous Alliance's cloning facility/base.

"Of course, you must be wondering about my voice returning. Here is an explanation for you, Ratchet. When the VA's cloning facility exploded and I was destroyed, my voice circuits died beyond the Zoni's repair and were repairing themselves this whole time, and they only finished while at the Scarzare's base. Also, I am still having wet dreams about you, Ratchet." Sasha and Talwyn got went wide-eyed at the last comment, and quietly snickered to each other.

"Heh-heh…well that's Aphelion for you," answered Ratchet nervously, looking at the President's face on the verge of bursting with laughter. He reluctantly turned to look at Ratchet and failed to contain his laughter when he saw his face, and ended up rolling on the floor, causing Talwyn and Sasha to laugh as well. Ratchet felt embarrassed, but then looked at the past events in a different point of view and began to laugh himself.

"Ratchet, what the hell is going on in there?" asked Tehctar, speaking into the Communication Crystal. Ratchet held his stomach, which was hurting from too much laughter and stumbled his way over to the crystal, breathing deeply to try to speak to him.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" choked Ratchet, managing to say it before bursting into laughter again, and then fell over near the two girls, and they supported him up until they finally stopped laughing. "Okay, Tehctar, release the claws." Ratchet crawled his way back into the chair, fired up the engines, before feeling the claws letting go, and boosted off away from the Unipose. Only a short time after they took off, Ratchet turned on the grav-o-metric warp drive and disappeared to the Solana Galaxy.

Tehctar smiled, and looked at Qwark and Clank (who had taken Sasha's spot) and realised that with the three of them, it was not going to be much fun. Clank was so bored that he started doing mathematical calculations in his head, which he had done a million times before, and was finally boring itself. Qwark looked around the place for something to do, but alas, he could not find anything.

"Hey, who wants to play some darts?" asked Tehctar, who dragged a trunk out from under the console and opened it, seeing a traditional dartboard and nine darts on top. He pulled them out just in time to see Clank and Qwark nodding furiously, as they were bored out of their minds, and anxiously waited for Tehctar to set up the dartboard on the right wall, away from some sheets and photos posted up, including a "Wanted" sign of Ratchet from when he was on the run from Drek.

After Tehctar had securely bolted the dartboard to the wall, he gave Clank and Qwark three darts each. "You all clear on the rules?" he asked, and only simple nods were given to him. "Okay, Qwark, you can go first." Qwark looked at his darts, and saw that there was a strange black and red pattern on them, but just shrugged and prepared to throw them. After he had thrown his three darts, they landed on the double ring of 7 and normal of 16 and 25, giving him a new score of 446.

"Nice job, Qwark. You've got a good steady arm," said Tehctar, nodding with respect for him. "Okay, Clank, you're up next. Need a lift?"

"Yes, please," said Clank, and Tehctar picked him up and held him at a level height, and kept his arms as stiff as possible as Clank threw his darts. Tehctar finally put him back down, and looked at Qwark, who was dumbfounded from something he had seen, and he then turned to look at the dartboard, which had three darts in the triple ring of 20, giving Clank a perfect score.

"Okay…Clank. Next turn, please dial your accuracy circuits to a level that belongs to a drunken jock at a bar with his posse, okay?" asked Tehctar, causing Qwark to snap out of his shocked trance and laugh at his comment. Clank angrily looked at Tehctar and then nodded, not wanting to spoil the fun and make the game boring. That familiar "BING BING BING" sound rang through Qwark and Tehctar's eardrums, making Tehctar angry.

He ran over to the pilot's seat, briefly looking out with the front window before looking down, and started to tapping away at the console, before realising what he had seen. Slowly and fearfully, he lifted his head up and peered out to spot a giant white warship, with a gigantic red stripe running down the middle, shaped like a sharp ice-block. He quickly looked back down and saw that the tracking device was pointing to the warship, and he then realised that the VA had docked.

"Uhhh, guys," said Tehctar, beckoning them to with his hands to come to him. Qwark and Clank both casually walked over to the Tehctar and their faces suddenly filled themselves with shock when they saw the flat warship slowly drifting in space, with burning blue flames coming out of its engines and aqua lights blink on the sides, among tiny double-barrelled turrets.

"Quick, Tehctar, let's get out of here before I need another pair of clean underwear. I only have a few left," squealed Qwark, suddenly panicking and running around the cockpit in fear, before accidentally hitting the wall and he then fell to the ground.

"Unfortunately, the shield will do no good without any movement from us, and if we tried to turn back now, we would be followed by the warship," said Tehctar, banging his head on the console in fear.

"But what if they haven't seen us yet?" asked Clank, trying to stop Tehctar from hurting himself. Unfortunately, the Unipose shook and Tehctar looked up to see red lasers firing rapidly at the Unipose, already causing some smoke to appear inside the cockpit.

"You sure about that, Clank?" asked Tehctar sarcastically, before slamming the steering wheel left without looking at it and the Unipose took a dive, avoiding some of the incoming fire, but the turrets were out-numbering them and some stray lasers still managed to hit them. "You guys get that smoke out of here while I try and out-manouevre these jokers!"

The Unipose spun, moved up and down, side to side and did all kinds of crazy indescribable manouevres as Clank managed to contain the growing fire and extinguish it with a hose. Clank rushed to the front of the cockpit and looked out towards the warship, looking for a weakness. Tehctar tried firing some rockets at it as he came around avoiding the laser cannons, but the rockets exploded on impact, not damaging the ship at all due to an invisible shield that become visible briefly when the rockets hit it.

"Tehctar, take out that shield generator on the bottom of the ship!" yelled Clank over the commotion of Qwark yelling and the consoles making funny noises, trying to warn Tehctar, but to no use.

"What?" he yelled back in anger, frustrated by how badly the Unipose controlled, with it almost chucking him out of his chair.

"Go under the ship and take a look!" Tehctar managed to nod and gained a small bit of control of the Unipose and avoided some more fire from the laser cannons, and then directed it under the warship. Another alarm sounded, and Tehctar noticed that it was telling him that a group of nine heat-seeking missiles headed straight for him, unable to avoid at all.

"Damn…" muttered Tehctar, before getting an idea. However, smoke rushed in front of his eyes and body, causing him to lose sight of the console and Clank, who was trying to dissipate the smoke by letting out some other gases, allowing Tehctar to see the console in front of him barely. "More is less, you bastards!" He turned the steering wheel all the way to the right, spinning the Unipose uncontrollably.

The heat-seeking missiles followed the Unipose's lead and spun around as well, but because there were so many of them, two collided and caused a chain reaction, which destroyed the others, leaving the Unipose undamaged by the explosion. Tehctar cheered at their victory against the missiles, but Clank and Qwark had no idea what was going on, and quickly finished clearing the smoke.

Tehctar levelled the Unipose out and saw that Clank was right about a shield generator being under the warship. A circular pimple-like dish was poking out the bottom, filled in with a green electrical field, powering up the ship's shield. "That's it. I'm going in," he said, just as another laser beam hit the Unipose, shaking Clank to the ground. He boosted the engines and flipped upside-down, skimming along the bottom of the warship, firing lasers at the shield generator.

A few of them hit, causing a tiny bit of damage to the shield generator (which wasn't shielded at all), but it still kept a strong resistance against the ship, making Tehctar's efforts futile. He launched a pair of rockets at it as he passed, and watched as they hit the shield generator, but still did little to no damage. Another group of heat-seeking missiles were launched from somewhere on the bottom of the ship, and Tehctar decided to use the warship itself to his advantage.

He pulled to the left and quickly rose up once he had come out of the warship, and darted over the warship, but the missile's technology was only capable of directing itself towards the target, regardless of whether anything was in its way. They all crashed into the bottom of the warship, right on the shield generator and created a big enough blast to destroy the generator, allowing the ship to fall prey to attack.

"YEAH!" yelled Tehctar, and Clank and Qwark were able to view the fireworks and share Tehctar's celebration. However, while the two celebrated, Tehctar quickly took back the helm and avoided the lasers shooting towards him, and realised that they wouldn't be able to take much more damage. He shook his head in self-pity and then suddenly a crazy, suicidal plan popped into his mind like a bullet.

He flew the Unipose up towards the bridge, sticking up high at the front of the warship, and he moved towards the front of it.

"Sir, the enemy ship is in sight. Should we fire the weapon?" asked a simple soldier in black garments and short blonde-grey hair on the bridge to Master, who was looking out at the Unipose floating in front of them. The soldier was on a lower level with a group of other soldiers in a ring, working at their stations but he had the job of firing "the weapon".

"Hold off it for a while until we can get a clearer shot. Finally, I'll be able to destroy him…," said Master, not taking his gaze away from the Unipose, which was seemingly wanting to get shot by the Villainous Alliance. It turned around until it faced the window of the bridge and suddenly was directing its path towards the bridge in a suicide attempt to destroy Master.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" yelled Master, surprised at the Uniposers' idiotic attempt to destroy Master.

"Sir…" gasped the same soldier, placing his finger on the "Fire" button and trying to suppress his desire to fire the weapon and save himself.

"FIRE! QUICKLY!" yelled Master, who turned and ran, trying to escape the explosion about to happen. The soldier quickly complied, and pressed the button, and a small, almost invisible cannon, just below the station, pointed towards the Unipose and fired a pod-shaped net at it. It landed outside, shaking the Unipose a little, and lied flat, attached to it.

The Unipose sped up as it travelled towards the bridge, and the soldiers found themselves overcome by their fear and quickly ducked, before hearing a "whoosh" and could hear a pair of engines flying away. After five seconds, no explosion occurred, and Master re-entered the bridge, wondering why the Unipose hadn't crashed, and saw that the Unipose was flying away from them, with no laser cannons firing at it.

"Tehctar, come in," spoke Ratchet into the Communication Crystal, aboard Aphelion with Sasha and Talwyn, and had medals placed around their necks. Tehctar was out of his chair, so surprised that his plan had worked and that he had scared the attackers and allowed an escape. He quickly looked to see if Clank and Qwark were all right, and then got back up into the pilot's seat, straightening himself up.

"Tehctar here. We ran into some trouble before but we are fine now," he said, trying to hold off the explanation of the battle until Ratchet had boarded back on the Unipose once again.

"Oh, good. Now, we are coming from Solana and…long story short, the Galactic President gave us medals. In addition, we have some for you too. We are now warping around your location…," said Ratchet.

"WAIT, RATCHET! NO!" yelled Tehctar, but his attempts were futile as he saw the Aphelion pop in between them and the warship, and they were almost immediately attacked by a wave of lasers, firing at them, easily puncturing Aphelion and disabling the engine in record time.

"Tehctar, help!" yelled Ratchet, but his voice was drowned out by Sasha and Talwyn's screams as the engine stopped and the lasers pushed them towards the nearby planet which Tehctar hadn't noticed at all during the battle. However, he quickly checked the database and was shocked to find that the planet was Grokley, a planet travelled to by Ratchet before they met.

He looked up to see lasers pushing Aphelion, making it hit the planet's atmosphere and then suddenly gravity took hold and the ship plunged to the ground of the planet, out of Tehctar's sight. "Come on, Unipose, you can follow them!" He flawlessly tapped at the consoles like a blur and the ship started tracking Aphelion, and he then grabbed hold of the steering wheel and pulled it to the left, heading towards Grokley.

Almost instantaneously, the Unipose entered the atmosphere and Tehctar found out that it was nighttime and was too dark for him to see Aphelion anywhere, and he heard the roars of some War Groks frolicking on the ground as if they were playing a sport. He confided in the computer on where Aphelion was and hoped that they were going directly towards them.

A shake startled him, and caused him to bang his hand on the steering wheel, and he was so distracted by the pain that he didn't realise that the Unipose had been pushed into a another direction. The pain settled down and Tehctar looked back out the front window and guessed that they were still going in the same direction. Once they got close to the ground, he tried landing the Unipose, but it didn't work and he soon realised that none of the controls worked anymore and that someone had hacked into the ship.

However, Tehctar was too distracted to think about it when he saw the Unipose plummeting towards the ground, and quickly ran out of the room with Clank and Qwark into the dining room, trying to get as far away from the impact as possible. They were all thrown to the ground by some force as they just made it to the dining room and could themselves falling to the ground, even though they were on it. Clank realised that the back of the Unipose was still in the air was now falling to the ground below.

The three hit their heads on the chassis of the Unipose as the end hit the ground, and more roars of War Groks sounded in the distance. Blood was falling Tehctar's forehead, while Qwark just had an ache and Clank had a dent in his. Tehctar was the first one to get up and he stumbled through the weapons room and through the cockpit, struggling to open the door and then fell over on the stairs and stopped at the bottom, looking up at the stars.

Tehctar tried to get back up, but his body would not allow it and he resorted to just laying there, hoping that he did not have the War Grok's attention.

Clank ran down the stairs, following Tehctar, but was sure he would get down safely, before going to Tehctar's side and pulling out a cloth. He cleaned up the blood on Tehctar's face, as Qwark joined him with a serious headache. He started crying from the pain and wanted everything to end as soon as possible. Clank helped Tehctar sit up, and smacked some sense into him, giving him a second wind and having some energy built into him.

"Let's find somewhere to rest!" yelled Tehctar weakly, getting up and holding the back of his neck in pain. Clank dropped the cloth and followed Tehctar with Qwark, who was still balling his eyes out. They walked over many mossy rocks, under the dark green sky in search of a cave or shelter to rest in. Clank looked back shortly at the Unipose and was shocked to see two red eyes in darkness next to it.

"Tehctar!" Clank yelled, causing both Tehctar and Qwark to turn around and look at the shadowed figure's red eyes. Tehctar opened his mouth in confusion, but soon shut it, as the figure did not seem to move at all. Slowly, he tried turning around, but in the corner of his eye, he saw the figure drop from seemingly clinging onto the side of the Unipose, and race towards him.

"It's the…" began Clank, but was too shocked to finish the sentence. Tehctar turned around, and both he and Qwark could not see the figure's face, but Clank's night-vision eyes could tell whom it was. Although Tehctar was facing the figure, it was still running on all fours like an animal towards him. Qwark and Clank tried to push him out of the way, but he was too stubborn to move.  
"It's too fast to me to run. Although…" Tehctar jumped to the side as the figure lunged at him, then he quickly got up and ran back towards the Unipose, his legs tired, and he stopped suddenly and felt sharp claws around his legs, dragging him backwards. In a heroic attempt, Qwark used his "supernatural" jumping skills to leap high and slam his fist down to save his best friend from the murderous creature trying to kill him.

As Tehctar could smell the sickly scent seeping into his nose of that familiar burnt caramel and rotten honey, mixing into a scent of blood, Qwark's fist made contact with the creature's head, slamming it down to the ground, almost squashing it's head, but instead it popped back up. The force of the punch threw Qwark backwards and he landed on his back, right behind the creature, and in an insult to injury, it farted in his face.

"Gross…" gasped Tehctar, getting up from being pinned down. He realised that the creature had turned its attention to Qwark, and in a race to save his friend, he turned without hesitating and sprinted with all his little energy towards the destroyed Unipose, his feet aching like two giant blisters and eventually reached the stairs. He looked behind him quickly and saw Clank trying to distract and attack the creature, but to no avail.

Feeling guilty to leave his friend behind, Tehctar slowly tried climbing up the stairs, bending over all the time and grabbing onto the small side-rails. Eventually, he surfaced in the destroyed cockpit, and stumbled his way over to the weapons room, tripping over on the way, and crawled towards the Modifi-gun laying the ground, and dragged it back with him as he crawled painfully through the Unipose.

Tehctar managed to reach the stairs and look out to see Qwark unconscious inside the creature's mouth, but he was not dead yet thankfully. He pushed himself down the staircase, feeling the edge of the steps pounding furiously at his rib cage drum kit. Once his head finally hit the bottom of the staircase, his fought back the pain and aimed the Modifi-gun on the ground, towards the creature's behind, and fired the gun with all his strength.

A shower of bullets hit the creature's backside, eventually setting it on fire, and in pain, it retreated with Qwark, running down a nearby cliff into a tribe of War Groks. Tehctar cringed when hearing the shouts of War Groks and crushing of their hands on their target, and started crying because he had failed to save his friend. Clank tried to fight back the horror and started to move again to search for shelter, but he noticed that Tehctar was adamant at not moving.

"Tehctar! It's too late! We can't do anything! We can only save ourselves," said Clank in a sad tone, also wanting to stay where they were.

"NO! It's not too late! We have to find him!" yelled Tehctar in a mix between an angry and sad voice, before bursting into tears. Clank ran back over to him and comforted him by petting his back, and then helped him back up and they started slowly walking, with a Modifi-gun to protect them.

"You are right," began Tehctar, as they slowly began walking down the hill where the Unipose had crashed. The muddy wet brown ground below them stuck to their feet, making it hard for them to move, but they didn't seem to notice the friction. "Either that creature killed Qwark, or the War Groks did. He had no escape." Clank started thinking about how Tehctar referred to their attacker as "the creature". "What was that thing anyway?"

The question startled Clank greatly, and he looked back down in shame and fear. "It w-w-was…I d-d-d-don't understand how…I c-c-c-c-can't tell you." Tehctar shook his head at Clank's stuttering, and he found the Modifi-gun to be too heavy and plopped it down next to him to use as a walking stick.

"I wonder what has happened to Ratchet, Sasha and Talwyn," said Tehctar, looking out into the distance for Aphelion. There were two large craters out of the ground in the distance, and a mountain was far away. Below them was a forest without anything being able to seen except a fire… "Look, Clank!" He pointed towards the smoke floating out of the canopy, and a burst of energy filled his insides, which allowed him to sprint down the rest of the hill.

Tehctar tripped as he neared the bottom but simply curled up into a ball and rolled down with no damage. Once the momentum stopped, he brought his head up, grinning, and looked back to see Clank cautiously walking down the rest of the muddy, now green hill. Tehctar's body was covered in a mixture of scarlet and chocolate liquid that gave off an extremely foul smell that he didn't notice. Clank finally stopped beside him, and nodded to him, before disappearing into the forest.

Tehctar realised his clothes were extremely sticky, and slowly took off his shirt, revealing his pre-adolescent bare chest, and chucked the shirt aside. He entered the path separated by two trees, and felt a sense of disappearing. He began to have second thoughts and looked behind to be shocked to see that there was a cluster of trees behind him, leaving him unable to exit.

Clank finished running a few paces and looked behind him to see only a group of trees blocking the entrance, and Tehctar nowhere to be found. Suddenly, he felt that walking into the forest was a deadly mistake. However, he had a whole dirt path in front of him, leaving him no choice but to push on. Slowly, the next portion of the path came out of the endless darkness, everything looking the exact same and he began to get frustrated.

"Why is this path the exact same? Am I not moving at all?" He looked behind him and saw the same group of trees as when he entered, and he kicked the dirt in anger and disgrace. However, in the corner of his left eye, he saw a glimmer of hope. A grey rock, bigger than the others, had somehow appeared on the path, but was never there before, meaning that the trees and the darkness were just and illusion to make people get frustrated and stay in one spot. Somehow, the forest knew what people's limitations were and always placed the rock further than people can take, but Clank had tricked it.

"You can't fool me, forest!" he yelled into the open air, before realising that what he was doing was crazy, yelling at a forest. He walked over to the rock and picked it up, and threw into the darkness to test what was behind it. Clank heard Tehctar yelling in pain, and knew that his friend was close by. He ran past where the rock sat and after thirty seconds, everything was the same. No rock, no Tehctar, no difference.

"Damn it!" Clank decided to rest, but his decision was shattered when he see something brown in amongst the darkness. He walked a few steps towards it and was shocked to see a T-intersection, with two wooden signposts, one facing left, one facing right. The one on the left said "Your Pain" and the one on the right said "Your Pleasure".

Clank was tempted to go down the right path, supposedly to his pleasure, but he then realised that the forest was probably tricking him once again, and probably used this trick for people who made it past the rock. Knowing the stories he had read, "Pleasure" often meant a world with everything the person needed, except friends. However, he had no idea about "Pain", but he could only guess that his friends were down there, as it would be a pain to tell them about Tehctar and Qwark.

"I hope I'm right." Slowly, Clank turned left and ran down the path named "Your Pain", and hoped that "Pain" didn't mean that one of his other friends shared a similar to Qwark. The trees were as blank and the same as every tree had previously seen, and even more started popping up on the path trying to block Clank, and he had eventually gained the knowledge that he had taken the correct steps to find his friends, because the forest was now trying to stop him.

"Yes, I've did it!" He continued weaving through the fast-growing trees and kept getting the sense that he was so close, yet he didn't seem to find any sign of reaching the fire. Even then, he hoped that the fire was a campfire, and not a burning death fire, and started running even faster than before. This was a mistake, and knew once another tree rose and the momentum prevented him from stopping or avoiding it.

His head slammed into the tree, and he fell down to the dirt road, covering him in brown smoke. He opened his eyes and saw that a wall of trees was blocking his path to find his "Pain". He got up and tried squeezing in between the trees, but a smorgasbord of branches grew out, sealing the space. "Pain…was actually pain. I've been trapped again. I should have taken pleasure."

He rested his head inside his hands, before hearing a shocking, but natural sound. Two birds were chirping near him, and he looked to his right to see two birds romantically kissing, a sight he had never seen in this fake forest, and wondered if there was actually a forest, with a monster built around it. Trying not to disturb the literal lovebirds, he slowly sidled in between the two trees, and saw that they were not supernatural, but were actually real.

With a gateway made of trees in front of him, he ran straight, and felt that he was actually going through a real genuine forest, and eventually saw a light in the distance that blinded him, having gotten used to the darkness inside the fake, nonsensical one. His energy circuits began to run low and his muttered to himself, telling him to keep going and that he was so close.

Emerging from the light, a fire filled his blurry eyes, and he could hear footsteps approaching him, but he never got a chance to see them because his body had fallen to the ground and his head buried itself in the dirt. "Claaaaank…" he could hear someone yell faintly before his energy circuits stopped completely and began to recharge, while Clank's programming force him to turn off and "sleep" for the recharging period.

To Clank, he immediately woke up, and only saw a bright green sky, with a dark moon in orbit. "Clank?" He heard a very familiar voice, but his memory circuits were still a bit loose, so he couldn't remember who said it. He tried to get up, but he wasn't able to move, and was forced to stare at the blank sky. Clank could feel the dirt ground underneath him, and guessed that he was somewhere near where he collapsed.

"Clank, get up!" He heard the voice again, and wished that he could to face the person, but once again, the ground attached itself to him. Birds chirped in the distance, and he smiled because he knew that he wasn't in the tricking fake forest, and had actually stumbled into the actual forest, where he hoped the fire was. "Clank, what's wrong?" His memory circuits finally repaired, and he was excited to get up and face Ratchet, the person who had been yelling at him.

"Clank, buddy. Are you okay?" He could hear the voice getting closer, and realised that he was smelling smoke nearby, and finally pieced together what had happened. Once he had stumbled into the light, he emerged into a part of the forest where Ratchet, Talwyn and Sasha had taken camp after crashing, and the fire he had seen before shutting down was the fire that had led him and Tehctar to the forest.

"Ratchet…where is Talwyn and Sasha?" Clank didn't even realise that he had asked Ratchet a question until after he had spoken. Ratchet went wide-eyed, showing concern for why Clank was asking about Talwyn and Sasha first. Clank finally got up and saw the burnt remains of a campfire from the night before, and turned to the right to see Ratchet stand there staring, his jeans tattered.

Ratchet gulped before finally answering Clank. "They are just over there." He pointed behind him, but Clank couldn't see through Ratchet, but Ratchet seemed to be reading his mind because he moved straight away to reveal two skeletons backed up against a tree, with a look of horror on their faces. "I'm sure that's them." He burst into tears, and Clank forced himself to comfort another crying soul, mourning the loss of their companions.

"Their bodies seem to have decomposed too quickly. Did you actually see them die?" Clank didn't get a response from the crying Ratchet, and almost gave up by turning around, but Ratchet stopped him.

"Who knows what this place can do to decompose bodies? And no, I didn't see them die. When the Aphelion was stuck in the time anomaly, all I saw was a flash and then they were gone, and later I found two skeletons. They are obviously dead."

"Wait, a time anomaly?" asked Clank firmly, having left Sigmund with the post of Caretaker at the Great Clock. "What's happening to time, Ratchet?" Ratchet was shocked at Clank's anger, but he understood when he remembered that Clank was caring for time for about a year at the Great Clock. He got back up and turned to face Clank, wiping his tears away.

"I don't know, but when Aphelion was plummeting to the ground, it was stopped in a blue portal just like in the Zolar Forest. We can only guess that it was the work of the Villainous Alliance, because they seemed to have a new plan," said Ratchet, and he was going to ask a question, but Clank got in before him.

"Plus, that flash. I have a feeling about what it was…"

"Wait a minute, Clank. Where are Tehctar and Qwark?" Clank gulped, or did something close to it.

"Well, that's tough. Tehctar…well, when I was entering the forest after seeing the fire from you, we walked into some monster of some kind, and the path behind me was blocked, so I have no idea what happened to Tehctar. I threw a rock into the darkness and heard it hit Tehctar, so I have a feeling he somehow entered the forest as well, but he might be in Solana by now, knowing that forest. I escaped by seeing two odds trees, different to the fake replicas, and followed it to find you."

"And Qwark?" Clank tried to speak, but was too shock to say anything. "Dead? Too gruesome to speak about?" Clank opened his mouth to try to explain, but Ratchet placed his hand over his mouth. "Don't. I can already guess what happened." Clank reluctantly closed his mouth, knowing who had killed Qwark and at least attacked Talwyn and Sasha, because he was still skeptical that they had actually died. Ratchet began to walk towards the path nearby, and Clank ran up to him.

"Are you sure this path isn't exactly like the one I almost got stuck on?" Ratchet smiled pathetically and shook his head, continuing to walk on, and he stopped inside the path, but Clank was careful to enter. He looked around and saw that all the trees were somehow different, and he felt trustworthy of the forest. He walked in with Ratchet, and turned around to see that there were no trees blocking him from going back.

"So, why aren't you very sad about Talwyn and Sasha?" asked Clank, walking along with Ratchet as the path began to turned left and right, not staying the same to Clank's pleasure.

"Well, half of the reason is that I already mourned during the night and dealed with it lightly. The other half is that I feel that even though they are clearly dead, I feel that there is a small glimmer of hope that they are somewhere out there." The path ended quite quickly, and they found themselves back on the muddy ground, a little less muddy that the day before.

"So where are we going, Ratchet?" asked Clank excitedly, glad to be safe from the forests.

"I'm going to show you the time anomaly that saved Aphelion and us until…" Ratchet shuddered, and then looked around the hemisphere of open space they had to search. Eventually, Ratchet saw a blue energy cylinder coming up from the ground to the sky, almost blending in, explaining why he wasn't able to see it at first. "Let's go!"

Ratchet began walking down a tiny indent in the ground and quickly came to the bottom without much effort, and Clank followed him. Clank checked his surroundings and saw that the path to the time anomaly was muddy, almost purple, and there were a few cluster of trees in the distance. He could see War Groks off to the right, but they were too low for the War Groks to detect and attack them.

"Better be careful, Clank. I heard that there was a part of Grokley where a gigantic mud path was situated, and poisonous lizards inhabited it. Luckily, it was nighttime when I first went through it, so no lizards were awake." Ratchet carefully walked onto the muddy path and felt his feet sink to a lower level, until the mud completely enveloped his shins.

"We should be able to fight the friction and sludge through the mud," said Clank, as Ratchet started pulling himself out, looking at his brown shoes and shin as they surfaced. Ratchet's unsure expression tempted Clank to get in himself, and he slowly walked onto the path, before quickly falling until only his head was popping out of the ground. Ratchet smiled and laughed, having tricked Clank into getting in himself and sinking.

Ratchet jumped in again, and grabbed Clank out of the sludge, before slowly putting in on his back like in their previous adventure, disgusted at the sludge on him that was attaching to his back. "Uhhhhh," blurted Ratchet, feeling nauseated from the mud, before forcing himself to move on. He slowly stepped through the thick mud, feeling like he was in water, except twice as thick.

"Are you sure about this, Clank? I wasn't sinking last time. It looks like we had rain during the night, what do you think?"

"Come on, Ratchet. You've dealt with worse before."

"Really, when?" Clank just shook his head and didn't answer, forcing Ratchet to roll his eyes and continuing to wade through the sticky mud, which started rising a little afterwards, reaching his hips. A fog started to roll in, blocking Ratchet and Clank's vision, only allowing them to hear the roars of War Groks and the calls of strange animals in the habitat.

"See any lizards yet, Clank?" Ratchet stopped in the mud and looked around, not being able to find any animals, but could just see the point where they hopped. Clank looked around as well, and couldn't see any lizards, but in the corner of his eye, he saw the blur of that same creature that had killed Qwark. He gulped and then turned his head back to Ratchet.

"No." Ratchet shrugged in disbelief and moved on, finding the mud to be getting thicker and harder for him to get through. He then heard a "crawg" sound close by, and guessed that lizard had entered their area and was searching for their scent. He picked up the pace, using all his strength, and eventually used too much and lost his balance, falling forward into the mud, and he felt something fall into his hands before he resurfaced, disgusted from the ickiness and he caught his breath.

"Uhhh, Ratchet…" Ratchet heard Clank and looked around him, and saw two purple lizards flanking them, ready to pounce and their tails burning some purple gas.

"Awwww, you want to eat us? Well, enjoy!" Clank looked furiously at Ratchet's lightness to being killed, and saw his hand emerging from the mud and throwing a piece of meat to the north-west into the fog, distracting the lizards floating on the surface of the mud, and he watched as they ran off to find the piece of meat Ratchet threw.

"Ratchet, where did you get that?" happily yelled Clank, gasping in disbelief.

"I found it when I fell into the mud, and I never got the chance to let it go." Ratchet smiled, content with his confidence giving him a new burst of energy, and he continued to walk slowly through the remaining mud. The mud had again risen to as high as his belly button, but only for a short time, as it started to decrease again to his waist.

Ratchet smiled when he saw a cluster of trees seeping through the fog, and he remembered that it was just near the time anomaly and Aphelion, and hoped that it was the right one, and that he wasn't going to a tribe of War Groks or something. He laughed when he heard the "crawg" call again and the sounds of meat being ripped apart. Soon enough, a blue tint covered a northeast portion of the fog, and his heart began to beat three times faster than before.

"Clank, we are nearly there!" Clank muttered "Yes!" but Ratchet was too excited to hear it, and he began to run through the mud, which was less thick than before. He could start seeing the energy coming from the northeast and he turned to face it and then ran again. The "crawg" sounds appeared again close by, followed by a bunch of other crazy noises, but he ignored them and could feel the mud decreasing to his knees.

"Almost there, almost there," gasped Ratchet as the calls got closer and closer and the mud fell to his ankles, and he was able to sprint through the rest of it until he came to dry solid land. Finally, he realised the sounds of creatures behind him, and he turned around to see green, yellow and purple emerging from the mud and slowly crawling towards him.

"Ratchet…" whimpered Clank, unable to do anything because he was on Ratchet's back. He realised that he did not need to be there anymore and jumped off, and went to Ratchet is side to help him. More and more lizards began to come out of the mud until the entire mouth of the sludge river was filled with lizards. He looked down in shame, and saw a lizard that had died recently, lying on the ground with its tongue flopping out.

"Ratchet, we have no hope…" began Clank, before seeing a purple blur being thrown through the air, disappearing into the fog again, and the lizards were stupid enough to think that it wasn't a lizard but a carcass of something they could eat, and they began to chase it, which some disappearing into the mud. He looked at Ratchet and saw him smiling viciously with his arm outstretched from the throw.

"We should be safe for now," said Ratchet, putting his arm down, and sighing from quickly looking back at his horrible past. Deciding not to over think about it, he turned around and was faced with a small cliff and a blue energy cylinder at the top with Aphelion, full of bullet holes, inside, frozen in time. Ratchet smiled and took his drenched armor off, and threw it over the cliff, before the anomaly caught it.

"HA! Let's go, Clank." Ratchet approached the small cliff face and pressed his hands into the soft dirt, and then put his right leg on the wall. He slowly and cautiously began to climb the cliff face, reaching the top after little effort, and pulled himself over and laid down on his back, watching the fog dissipate into a green sky again. He saw Clank reach up to the peak of the cliff with Ratchet in the corner of his eye, and was surprised to find that Clank wasn't relaxing.

"What are you looking at, Clank?" he asked, but didn't get a response. He sat up and looked at him, and saw that he was staring at Aphelion, trapped in time by the time anomaly. He realised that this had a great effect on Clank, who had worked so hard at the Great Clock to stop all of this. Ratchet got up, walked over to Aphelion, and looked inside.

"Everything still seems to be running. That is good, because we can repair the damage and get back to the Unipose. What happened to the Unipose anyway? Why did you land so far away from us?" Ratchet waited for a response, but none was given, and wondered why Clank wasn't answering him. "Clank?" He turned around and saw that Clank was staring in fear at something else.

The lizards had returned from the mud and were waiting at the mouth of the sludge river, not moving. Ratchet wondered why they weren't moving and why Clank was so scared, and he then saw that something else had joined the lizards. At the back of the group, was a robotically enhanced Scarzare, standing on his four limbs like a tiger, staring at them with his red eyes…

Chapter 22 Preview

"_Hold on," said Tehctar, keeping his eyes on the approaching Scarzare who had slowed to a crawl as he squeezed between the two huts, being cautious as to whether the Uniposers had any tricks up their sleeves. Talwyn looked at everyone, and could tell by the looks on their faces that they were hoping that one of them had a plan, but unfortunately, there was no hope._

"_Giddy up!" yelled a heroic voice, and a white furry giant foot slammed down in front of the Uniposers, scaring the girls and shocking the boys. Ratchet looked up slowly and was thrown backwards to the past when he found Qwark running after his pet War Grok, Snowball. And upon that same War Grok in present was Captain Qwark, riding it like a bull._

"_Did I eat some native mushrooms or something?" asked Ratchet, looking up with the Uniposers at their presumed deceased friend, stronger than ever._


	22. Master

_Rise of the Uniposers_

_After escaping the Scarzare's base, Tehctar keeps his identity, fearing that the bandits are still after him. Using the tracking device he made to track Master, the Unipose follows him and ends up reaching an enemy warship, which attacks them. At the same time, Ratchet and Sasha leave in the Aphelion to the Solana Galaxy to send the Galactic President back to his post. As the Unipose escapes from the attack, Aphelion arrives back in the Woldgon Galaxy and is shot down onto Grokley.__ The Unipose tries to land there to rescue them, but something causes them to lose control and crash. Tehctar, Clank and Qwark check out their surroundings and Qwark is presumably killed by an unknown creature. Clank and Tehctar get separated in a confusing forest, and Clank is able to find Ratchet, who believes that Sasha and Talwyn were killed by the same creature. The duo make their way through a muddy river towards the time anomaly that Aphelion was trapped in that saved their lives, but find that the Scarzare, previously killed, is waiting for them…_

_Chapter 22: Master_

"The Scarzare? But he was killed by Sasha2!" said Ratchet, staring in shock at the Scarzare that was staring at them in anger, more animal-like that last seen.

"I don't think this the same one we killed," said Clank, stepping away from the monster slowly. "It's been enhanced somehow, and remember that he was cloned from the Galactic President, and they may have other clones." Ratchet began stepping back along with Clank, but then realised something important.

"But does that mean that if it was cloned from the Galactic President in the same period of time, it could potentially mutate another Sasha2!" Clank had the same idea, except he knew about one minor drawback.

"But she won't have any memories of her adventures with us."

"Yes, but she would have the same personality and she would understand what happened, wouldn't she?"

"That is true, but I think for our safety we should try killing this monster."

"But Sasha…"

"I know. Would you rather risk all our lives trying to grow a new friend or be safe from this monster?" Ratchet's face was blank while he tried to think of his answer. "Well?"

"I'm thinking!" he yelled. He stopped thinking about the matter when he saw the lizards beginning to stack and scale the wall. "Clank, I think we better go." The Scarzare leaped up high like a supernatural tiger and landed in front of Ratchet and Clank, and charged himself up to pounce at them. Ratchet grabbed Clank's hand and quickly threw him up to his back, and Clank flexibly landed in his backpack like old times.

"Remember when we first arrived and there was this thing about a teleporting cave?" asked Ratchet, stepping up onto Aphelion and leaping off it, before landing on a dirt slope behind it.

"What about it?" asked Clank, clinging desperately to the back of Ratchet as they slid down the rough slope, wearing out the material on his jeans.

"Maybe if we could find one of the caves, we could warp somewhere else and throw the Scarzare off the trail!" he yelled over the sound from the friction of the dirt under him.

"Good idea!" yelled Clank, just as she stopped at the bottom of the slope. Ratchet looked back quickly and saw the Scarzare leaping down the slope and he quickly ran forward over the ugly short green grass, desperately trying to get away from the tiger. Ratchet looked out at the horizon and saw many rocky clumps forming weird shapes, but spotted one that was darker and shaped like a cliff face, with a hole in the front like the perfect entrance for a cave.

"Clank, I think I found one!" yelled Ratchet, just noticing a War Grok village to the south-east of him as he turned right towards the brown foundation and dark cave entrance. Behind Ratchet, the Scarzare was racing towards him like a cheetah, keeping a phenomenal speed as he began to catch up to Ratchet. Ratchet noticed that the Scarzare would be able to clearly see him enter the cave.

Ratchet ran to the cave's side and slowly turned so that he would be parallel to the entrance of it. The Scarzare followed Ratchet's tracks, and was mildly confused as Ratchet quickly disappeared, but she still kept running, thinking that he turned behind the cliff face. Ratchet, backed up against the wall, watched as the blur of the Scarzare passed straight by the cave.

Although the sun was starting descend, there was plenty of natural light in the cave, and Ratchet looked at seemingly never-ending depth that was stopped by the darkness. Clank jumped off Ratchet's back and looked at the tunnel inside the cave as well, wondering how they would teleport. He looked at Ratchet, who seemed to be clueless, but was actually thinking that there was an invisible door.

"Come on, Clank!" he yelled, running straight towards the endless tunnel and suddenly seeing grass, just as he tripped over and fell into someone's lap.

"Ratchet, I can't believe you're alive!" yelled Talwyn, who was sitting up against the wall to the right of Ratchet's perspective. Ratchet looked up and saw the friendly face of Miss Apogee, and was surprised to have her suffocate him in a loving kiss. Ratchet's eyes widened from the surprise and Clank didn't find it unusual to find his best friend being kissed as he walked through the door.

"You okay, Sasha?" whispered Clank to the sad gloomy face of Sasha, who wasn't happy with Talwyn kissing Ratchet. She smiled quickly, but was really feeling pain inside, which was obvious to him as he sat down next to her to try and make her feel better. Finally, Ratchet was released from Talwyn's deadly lip grip, and he smiled stupidly in delightful shock.

"Talwyn, Sasha! I thought you were killed by the Scarzare!" he yelled happily, laughing at the same time.

"We were only taken to his little home, and we figured out that he was just another clone of Sasha's father, except enhanced," said Talwyn, still holding Ratchet's face happily.

"Well, its good you figured that out because I didn't feel like explaining it at all," said Ratchet, shifting over to Sasha's side to see if she was okay.

"Wait," began Clank. "We were just running from the Scarzare, and if he visits this place regularly, then he could be here any second!" Soon after Clank said that, the Scarzare head popped down from the top of the entrance to the cave and roared at them angrily, scaring Sasha and Talwyn to death. They squealed as loud as they could as they stood up and ran straight back through the teleporting door, not caring if they would end up on the other side of the planet.

"Girls, wait!" yelled Ratchet, realising that they wouldn't end up at the same place with the amounts of caves over the planet. He turned around and was completely shocked to see his tiny robotic friend sparring with the tiger-like Cazarean clone. He smiled to him, distracting him a little to him to understand that Ratchet was going to go after Talwyn and Sasha.

"Talwyn, Sasha, can you hear me?" Ratchet yelled into the door, hoping that communication was viable through the connectable teleporting doors, no matter how many there were. He waited for a few seconds and disappointingly heard nothing, and looked back while waiting, gazing at the scuffle happening between the surprisingly strong Clank and the equally physically strong Scarzare.

"Ratchet, is that you?" yelled a male voice from most likely the teleporting doors. Ratchet swore he heard the voice speak, and looked back at the teleporting door, confused. He looked back at Clank who didn't notice anything, and just simply shrugged at the voice, thinking that his mind was playing tricks on himself. He turned back to the door, ready to enter, thinking about where he could end up.

"Okay," he finished, taking a small step before being back over, by some mysterious force. "Is that you again, Talwyn?" Ratchet listened for a response, but was given none and managed to find the figure's head, and he sat up and held the head up to his face, and was greeted with the smile of Tehctar.

"Hello again, Ratchet!" he exclaimed happily, pushing Ratchet off and standing up with no questions what-so-ever, observing the situation going on with Clank and the Scarzare. He showed no expression because he knew there were going to be things that he wouldn't understand and that Ratchet would have to explain a lot, but he didn't expect the Scarzare to be a part of it.

"Explanation?" Tehctar simply asked to Ratchet, who nodded in agreement. "Well, you may know that I got separated with Clank, and when I was separated, I got out of the forest and was met with some waterfall. I tried crossing the river, but the current washed me behind the waterfall into a cave, and that's when I heard your voice and look at what we have here, Clank fighting what seems to be a robotically enhanced Scarzare. Since the Scarzare was a clone, I'm guessing that there were more copies made before the original Scarzare stole the Galactic President, and they trained another copy." Ratchet was confused and shocked at how Tehctar was figuring stuff out so easily. "Clank must have obviously got out of that tricky forest and found you, and must have found one of these caves and the Scarzare followed you, or something like that. But if Clank found you, then where's Talwyn and Sasha?" He looked at the confused Ratchet, having not understood what Tehctar said, and Tehctar grinned smugly at his confusion. "Where are Talwyn and Sasha?"

"Oh…" began Ratchet, realising what Tehctar asked. "I thought they were dead, but the robotically enhanced Scarzare (Tehctar nodded smugly, knowing he guessed right) took Talwyn and Sasha to this cave which it used as it's home, and when it came back after it chased us, it scared Talwyn and Sasha into the teleporting door, and have now gone somewhere. And of course, Clank is using the Clank-Fu to spar against the monster."

"Everything else important?" asked Tehctar curiously, wondering if there was anything he didn't know. Ratchet retraced his footsteps in his mind, first by thinking about how Clank found him at the campsite. They then made their way through the muddy river and arrived at Aphelion in the time anomaly.

"Tehctar, have you ever seen a time anomaly?" asked Ratchet.

"No, I don't think they even exist, but I've heard myths about them being certain areas where time flows differently to the rest of the world," began Tehctar, being a usual know-it-all again. "For some reason, there have been a lot of stories about sightings recently, but they stopped about a month ago." He noticed that Ratchet was waiting impatiently. "Sorry, Ratchet!" he finished, smiling cheekily.

"Well, Tehctar. Time anomalies do actually exist because of this place called the Great Clock. It makes sure that time flows properly, but one day Nefarious took over and caused time anomalies all over the universe. Once Clank and I defeated him, the time anomalies were repaired, but now that this one has appeared, looks like the Villainous Alliance has caused some damage to the matter in the universe. Aphelion got trapped in one, which saved our lives. How about you?"

"We tried to land, but I'm guessing that the Scarzare is that creature that crashed us. I think he got killed by it, and I was too late to save him." Tehctar looked down unhappily, but forced himself to continue the story. "And that's when we made our way to the forest and we got separated." There was silence as Ratchet and Tehctar both pieced their stories together, until Ratchet remembered that he was looking for Sasha and Talwyn.

"Talwyn? Sasha? Is there anyone listening?" he yelled into the door, standing up and shaking himself off. He looked at it, trying to see if there was any way to view the surroundings in the other teleporting doors. He thought about the chance of teleporting to Talwyn and Sasha, but he knew that Talwyn and Sasha would have probably left the cave they had teleported out of.

"Ratchet, can you hear me?" echoed a tiny female voice that Ratchet immediately recognised as Talwyn. He grinned in delight, knowing that his task would be easy.

"Talwyn, I'm coming!" yelled Ratchet, running straight through the door without thinking, leaving Tehctar shocked, wondering what happened so fast. Tehctar decided to stay there with Clank in case they lost each other, and he then realised that the Scarzare had Clank pinned down. He grabbed a nearby rock and chucked it at the Scarzare, hitting it square in the head and distracting its attention.

"Oh, crap!" yelled Tehctar as the Scarzare lunged at him. Tehctar quickly rolled to the right and watched as the Scarzare passed by him and into the teleporting door. "Oh crap!" Tehctar repeated, and Clank joined him running straight through the door as well. He felt himself pop out and opened his eyes long enough to knock Ratchet over, because by pure luck the three of them had ended up in the same cave.

"Oh crap?" Tehctar asked to Clank, which resulted in a roar of laughter from Clank and a bout of confusion from Ratchet, who didn't know what caused Clank to laugh. "I guess we were really lucky to end up together, but we still don't know where Talwyn and Sasha are. How are we supposed to look for them together?"

"It's a little thing called contact," said Ratchet immediately, connecting Clank and Tehctar's hands before grabbing Tehctar's other free hand himself and he rushed back through the door with a dizzy and confused Tehctar and Clank, all ending up at the same place. They all tripped and fell onto a pile in front of the door, with Clank at the top who was of course the first one to get off.

"You two, get up. Talwyn and Sasha aren't here," said Clank, pulling Tehctar off of Ratchet who was too exhausted to get up. Clank ignored him anyway, and pulled him up, and grabbed Tehctar's hand as well and carefully entered through the door, stepping into the next cave with ease. Again, Talwyn and Sasha weren't there, but Clank noticed that they were back in the cave that he and Ratchet entered when the Scarzare was chasing them.

"And again," said Clank, stepping backwards with Ratchet and Tehctar in his hands, ending up backwards in another cave. Clank let go of their hands and turned around, greeted with the shocked smiles of Talwyn and Sasha. "Oh, hello." Clank kept his cheeky smile as Talwyn and Sasha giggled and hugged him together, before moving onto Ratchet and Tehctar, who were still dazed and exhausted.

"Why didn't you answer us?" panted Ratchet, falling into Sasha's arms in exhaustion. Sasha was too busy comforting Ratchet to answer him, but Talwyn wasn't too sure on telling the tale. Tehctar and Clank were left to just ponder about the implications, but came up with too many scenarios to guess. Talwyn sighed, knowing that she'd have to tell, and eventually gave in.

"We were distracted by the fact that we can't leave or we'll be War Grok slaves like Qwark was," stated Talwyn. Ratchet's tired eyes turned wide as Sasha lowered his back down the ground, leaving him lying there comfortably. Tehctar's eyes were wide too, finding it a little hard to believe that they were surrounded by War Groks.

"We're in the middle of a War Grok tribe?" asked Tehctar, soon remembering the roars of the War Groks he had heard when the Scarzare took Qwark. "Qwark…" He mourned the loss of his friend whose fatherly friendship had blossomed after being separated in the oceans of Rancine. Talwyn looked at the uneasy look on Tehctar's face, and felt heartbroken when she heard him groan unhappily.

"What happened to him?" she asked comfortingly. Tehctar realised that Talwyn and Sasha had not seen Qwark since they had left the Unipose in Aphelion, and did not know why only Tehctar and Clank arrived without any explanation for Qwark's absence.

"The Scarzare took him and they ended up in a War Grok tribe, and I guess that the Scarzare left him for dead," said Tehctar, choking up a bit, trying to keep strong for his rock hard reputation.

"You okay?" asked Sasha softly, and was only met by a sad teary face and a strong nod. Tehctar sucked through his teeth, trying to hold back the tears, as to not cause commotion and attract the War Grok's attention. He turned around and walked towards the entrance of the cave, enough so he could see a lot but any perpendicular view couldn't see him. Sasha and Talwyn gazed at each other sadly, realising that the mood had become grimmer ever since Qwark had gone missing.

Their silence was disrupted as the Scarzare popped through the door, and landed on Talwyn's body, pinning her to the ground as he licked around his mouth, ready for a meal. Ratchet used his remaining energy as Sasha squealed and Tehctar and Clank gasped, and he tackled the Scarzare's head, pushing him away from Talwyn. "Run!" he yelled, and Tehctar realised that they'd be safer taking their chances with the War Groks as they were dumber.

"Come on, let's go!" yelled Tehctar, grabbing Sasha and Clank, and beckoned for Talwyn to get away. Tehctar was satisfied when Talwyn stood up, so he turned around and let go of Sasha and Clank's hands, knowing that they were alert and would follow Tehctar wherever he went. As the Uniposers left the cave, Ratchet kicked the Scarzare into the wall, and somersaulted backwards, with the momentum helping him get up and catch up to the others.

Tehctar exited the cave, and was met by a giant War Grok slamming its fist down, so he had to run back around the cave into the midst of the War Grok village. The rest of the Uniposers found his location and followed him, with the Scarzare on their trail. Tehctar ran in between two tall huts and emerged in a cobble square, surrounded by a ring of the huts. There was a big bucket in the middle, tied to a stone well, making the village look like a medieval civilisation.

Tehctar ran to the well and turned around, watching as the rest of his friends stopped beside, gazing at the unintelligent War Grok, who seemed to have lost sight of them. He was grateful to have nothing weighing him down, but he then remembered that the firepower he was carrying was not with him when the Scarzare found them once again. "Tehctar, don't you have Ratchet's Modifigun?" asked Clank as he ran to the well with him.

"Hold on," said Tehctar, keeping his eyes on the approaching Scarzare who had slowed to a crawl as he squeezed between the two huts, being cautious as to whether the Uniposers had any tricks up their sleeves. Talwyn looked at everyone, and could tell by the looks on their faces that they were hoping that one of them had a plan, but unfortunately there was no hope.

"Giddy up!" yelled a heroic voice, and a white furry giant foot slammed down in front of the Uniposers, scaring the girls and shocking the boys. Ratchet looked up slowly and was thrown backwards to the past when he found Qwark running after his pet War Grok, Snowball. And upon that same War Grok in present was Captain Qwark, riding it like a bull.

"Did I eat some native mushrooms or something?" asked Ratchet, looking up with the Uniposers at their presumed deceased friend, stronger than ever. Talwyn laughed quietly and was the only one to look down at the Scarzare, who was preparing for a lunge at the oversized War Grok. She shook her head in disgrace as the Scarzare charged at Snowball's foot, and bounced off it, probably getting a headache in the process.

Snowballs other foot finally came down next to his other one, followed by his two fists which he used to try and slam down on the Scarzare, but his agility was too much for Snowball's slowness. The Scarzare ran around to behind Snowball, exposing his weakness, and aimed straight for Ratchet again, wanting to finish the fight they had begun earlier.

This time however, Ratchet was prepared, and caught the Scarzare in mid-air, pinning him to the ground. "Stomp him, Qwark!" he yelled upwards as the Scarzare desperately tried to break free. Ratchet watched as Snowball's leg lifted upwards, still holding the Scarzare at bay, and waited as the leg moved over Ratchet and Scarzare, and slowly descended, waiting for the right moment.

"Now!" yelled Ratchet, kicking the Scarzare in the stomach and letting go, and then running over to Tehctar and the others who had moved back so they wouldn't be in the zone of impact or blood. He looked back just in time to see the surprisingly fast drop of Snowball's leg, landing on the Scarzare he could get up and killing him in a puddle of spraying blood. Ratchet did not get sprayed as he finally reached the other Uniposers, and Talwyn hugged him, worried that he may have been squashed too.

"I'm okay!" panted Ratchet, as Talwyn embedded herself in Ratchet's arms, making Sasha jealous once again, but she was distracted as Snowball crawled over to the Uniposers. Talwyn let go of Ratchet and watched as Snowball stopped, and Qwark slid off the side of him. A tear rolled down Tehctar's eye in joy, wondering in joy how Qwark survived, but he quickly decided that ignorance was bliss.

Back at the Unipose, which was found after Clank figured out that the War Grok village was where the Scarzare took Qwark and where Tehctar heard the War Grok roars, Tehctar, Clank, Ratchet and Qwark quickly began repairing the metal around the cockpit of the Unipose and the glass in the windshield. Talwyn and Sasha cleaned up the place on the inside, putting their household skills to work.

It was a long day fixing up the Unipose, but finally, as the sun came down, it was fully functional again, and they were ready to get Aphelion back from the time anomaly. Inside the cockpit with Tehctar, Ratchet watched out the windshield as the Unipose elevated, and grew a small smile on the corner of his mouth. Surprising quickly, the blue time anomaly came into sight and Tehctar eventually realised that it was the time anomaly, and almost missed it.

"Thank you very much for telling me that was the time anomaly," said Tehctar, turning the Unipose around. Ratchet was too busy playing with a piece of metal in boredom to realise that they arrived, and laughed innocently. The Unipose smoothly landed beside the time anomaly, as to not get caught in it like Aphelion did, and Ratchet quickly opened the door, sucking through his teeth when he saw the bullet holes in it again.

"Reckon we can repair it?" asked Tehctar to Ratchet, exiting the Unipose after him. Ratchet turned his head around and looked at him with no expression, until a smirk grew on his face and he nodded. Sometime during the night, an explosion seemed to occur on the surface of the planet, and out of it shot the Unipose, Aphelion on top of it, flying out of the atmosphere with excited cheers inside.

"That was a close one with the engine, right?" asked Ratchet rhetorically, standing behind the pilots seat, as the Unipose began to track Master again, and the warship he was on. "Look's like we'll need the cloaking device for this one."

"Good idea," said Tehctar, forgetting about such device that could have helped him against the warship. He wondered if the VA could have known about the cloning device because of what happened at the Scarzare's base, but he guessed that either they didn't see it's use or were too stupid to remember. Surprisingly quickly, the warship, looking like a white dot, came into view, and therefore Tehctar prepared the cloaking device for boarding.

"I hope this is going to be easy because I want to get this over and done with. I'm willing to kill them all just to finish this," said Tehctar, checking the cloaking device to see if it was functioning. He sat straight back up in his seat and activated it, hoping that the warship wasn't extremely vigilante. The warship got bigger and bigger, and eventually looked like a warship, but the armed defences on the sides had no clue of the Unipose's presence.

"So what's the plan?" asked Ratchet, and he watched as Tehctar pressed a button which kept the Unipose steady and still.

"Looks like we're using the interactive board again!" Tehctar said, running out immediately without a second thought. Ratchet slowly followed him into the weapons room and through to the dining room, where he was already setting up the board in front of the table and the Uniposers sitting there guessed that they had arrived. Soon enough, Tehctar created avatars for each of them, and created avatars for the Unipose, Aphelion and the warship.

"Gather around, everyone!" he yelled, knowing that Ratchet was still standing and Qwark was getting himself a treat. They all able to just fit on the sofas and they kept their attention at Tehctar as he prepared to announce the plan. "The first part of the plan is simple. I will need some help to pilot the Unipose into the hangar of the warship completely undetected, and hopefully no armed forces will figure out from the sound." As he spoke, he moved the avatars accordingly, and everyone listened carefully.

"From there, Talwyn and I will search for a way to deactivate the power, hoping undetected, while Ratchet and Qwark will create a diversion by hopefully luring all the forces towards them. Don't worry, if things get hectic, you'll be in the hangar so you can escape in the cloaked Unipose. You'll only have to come back when either Talwyn and I or Sasha and Clank finish the job or get into trouble. This brings us to the next part, which is what Sasha and Clank will be doing. You guys will be heavily equipped along with Ratchet and Qwark, because you will have to navigate the warship to try and find the bridge, where hopefully one or more of the villains will be, and you will have to apprehend them. Or just totally obliterate them, I don't really care."

"After the warship has been hopefully destroyed or something, there may be something else we need to take out because something must have caused that time anomaly. And if none of the villains have been defeated by them, I say we take them on one by one. I plan that Sasha takes out Otto, Talwyn takes out Tachyon, Qwark takes out Drek and Ratchet and Clank take out Nefarious. I will try and take out Master, because I have some personal business I have to finish. Is everyone clear on the plan?"  
They all nodded in agreement simultaneously, and began to stand up to head to the weapons room. "Now, for the two people I need to help me pilot the Unipose to the hangar, I am picking Sasha and Clank to help me, as Sasha has good eyes and Clank will be able to keep an eye on the "little buttons", as I like to call them," finished Tehctar, as the Uniposers began walking past him to check what weapons to use.

"Okay," muttered Sasha, smiling as she walked into the crowd around the weapons.

"Sasha, think you can handle the Modifigun?" asked Ratchet at the front of the crowd, grabbing the Modifigun. He chucked it over to Sasha, and she swiftly caught it, but immediately dropped it because she couldn't handle the weight. "Guess not…" He picked the Modifigun back up with little trouble, and shoved it back on the rack. He grabbed some of the lighter guns and threw one at Sasha which she was able to handle.

"I'll need one," said Clank and Qwark simultaneously. Ratchet smiled and picked up two more, leaving one left, before chucking them both to Clank and Qwark which they caught rapidly.

"That would leave one for either Talwyn or Tehctar," said Ratchet, looking back at the last gun on the top of the rack.

"Tehctar can have it, because I have my pistol ready," said Talwyn, trying to grab the lighter laser gun for Tehctar to carry. Ratchet grabbed it and dropped it, with it barely having a descent because of Talwyn's arms stopping it. She felt it for a second, and imagined that she was carrying a giant pencil, but had to give up the gun to Sasha who passed it along to Tehctar.

"Okay! Everyone to positions! Sasha and Clank with me! Everyone else in the dining room!" commanded Tehctar, squeezing around the crowd through to the cockpit. Ratchet quickly picked up his Modifigun, having to wait until he could steadily carry it, and followed Talwyn and Qwark into the dining room await the upcoming battle. Sasha and Clank, however, walked into the cockpit and sat in their respective places, with Clank on the left and Sasha on the right, watching the warship.

"Ready?" he asked, his finger resting on the auto-pilot button. He looked left and right as sweat already started to pour down his face, his chest pounding outwards in excitement and fear. Clank and Sasha both nodded strongly, but Sasha felt reluctant about flying straight into the warship, fearing the worst case scenario that the cloaking device failed and they died horribly.

"Here goes everything," said Tehctar, slamming the auto-pilot button down, deactivating it. Tehctar grabbed the steering wheel firmly and boosted the engines until the roaring hurt his ears and he stared desperately out of the windshield, cruising the Unipose towards the warship's hangar. "Sasha and Clank, report." He kept his full concentration on the entrance to the warship as he commanded this.

"The warship's defenses seem to be oblivious to our invasion," stated Sasha, keeping an eye on a bunch of small turrets that were just pointing blindly in the air.

"Okay. Clank, how's the system doing?"

"The system seems to be fully functional, with lasers, rockets and cloaking device all perfectly running," said Clank, looking at the console as if he was communicating with his eyes.

"Good. Let's do this!" Tehctar yelled courageously, watching as the blue bubble surrounding the entrance to the hangar came closer and closer. Eventually, to Sasha's fear, they burst through the bubble, and suddenly found themselves in a breathable atmosphere that took up the entire ship. Sasha looked out and saw the centre of the metallic hangar they were in was free of space to land, but there was a group of three Mimbian soldiers, confused at the noise.

"Okay, Tehctar, you can land," said Sasha, gazing at the three confused soldiers, knowing that if they didn't hurry up, then they would figure out that the ship was cloaked. Tehctar forced the ship to float in the hangar, and slowly descended vertically, causing some shrapnel to blow away as it touched the hard metal floor. The soldier on the far right finally figured out by the air that had been blown that a cloaked ship had landed in the hangar of their warship.

"It's a ship! Fire!" yelled the soldier, and he aimed an average-sized pistol at the space where he thought the ship was and fired at it, his friends watching the laser hit something invisible. His two friends followed him, by aiming their guns and shooting at the invisible Unipose. Sasha heard the pelts near her, making her squeal and duck to the ground, exposing her panties to Tehctar.

"Bahaha!" he laughed, ignoring her panties politely, and he then realised the time for offence was now. "Ratchet and Qwark, do your thing!" A few seconds later, Qwark and Ratchet jogged into the cockpit with their weapons ready and cautiously opened the door. One of the soldier stopped firing when he saw two figures and two guns floating in mid-air, but fell to the ground when Ratchet shot him and the two others with the Modifigun.

"Everyone, hide somewhere in the hangar until I find a disclosed path out of here! Hurry up because more soldiers are going to come through the main door!" he yelled, zipping his coat down and throwing it away, quickly noticing that Talwyn and Sasha had already started to run down the steps, following Ratchet and Qwark who now stood in front of said steps, aiming at the door. Tehctar followed Clank out and watched Talwyn as she found a hiding place behind a ship in the hangar.

"Clank, follow Sasha, okay?" Tehctar once again yelled as he ran behind the ship on the left as well, joining Talwyn as he waited for more soldiers to come. He was just able to see Clank follow Sasha into a closet, near the back on the right side and lost sight of them when the door closed. He waited for a while, expecting to hear the door bust open and have a flood of troopers rushing out, but to his surprise, there was nothing.

"Huh," said Tehctar, getting up as he dropped his laser gun, looking at Ratchet and Qwark who were impatiently waiting for some action. He walked out to the middle, and then found a grate opposite to him and Talwyn, before hearing a crashing sound. A laser narrowly missed him as a flood of Mimbian soldiers charged out the door, swiftly being shot down by the Modifigun.

"Tehctar, look out!" yelled Talwyn. He looked at the door and saw a soldier aiming his gun at him, and watched as a laser bolt cruised towards him. His expression turned from shock to confidence as he rolled out of the way, feeling the heat that was heading for his chest. Tehctar pulled a revolver out from under the ship he was near, and aimed it quickly at the soldier, firing a bullet wildly.

"Tehctar!" Talwyn yelled again as the force from the shot caused him to fall backwards. He gathered his consciousness up, and lifted his head back up towards the door, and scoffed when he saw the dead body of the soldier limped on another dead one. Talwyn slid the laser gun over to him and he kept it under his arm as he stood up again and sprinted over to the grate.

"Talwyn, come and help me lift this up," shouted Tehctar over the sounds of blaster fire coming from both Ratchet and Qwark's guns and the soldier's weak guns. Qwark almost got hit by a blaster, but only the hairs on his arm were scorched, and just to be safe, Ratchet grabbed the Windy Shield off his belt and fired it quickly. They were soon surrounded by a circular shield that caught the blasts in mid-air and blew them away, slowing them down to a non-lethal level.

"Okay," muttered Talwyn, pulling her pistol out, looking out to the battle going on, and when none of the soldiers were looking, she darted across to the grate. Tehctar looked inside the grate, and saw an underground passage with many loose hanging wires above a puddle of water; obviously the water system was placed under rooms with a lot of computer technology in them, making it a dangerous path to travel.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Talwyn, placing her fingers under the grate and realising why Tehctar had asked her for help. Tehctar used most of his strength to lift it a little off the ground, and matched with Talwyn they were able to sidle over a few steps left and place it on the ground next to the hole. Hesitating, Tehctar jumped down and landed firmly on his legs, being cautious as to the hanging wires, making sure with his eyes that they didn't touch the energetic water.

"Okay, I think we'll be safe," said Tehctar, stepping aside so Talwyn could land easily. He heard the thud of Talwyn's rough landing and the gasp of shock she got as he looked around curiously, and found a plastic rod floating the shallow water, about the size of an Olympic baton. He remembered that plastic does not conduct electricity, and dunked his hand into the murky and dirty water, scooping it out.

"Follow me," whispered Tehctar, scraping his feet through the water, looking like it was starting to turn green. Talwyn held her pistol and watched Tehctar with the gun in one hand and the metal rod in the other. Only a few steps in, they came to an intersection, with one path straight ahead and one to the right. Tehctar decided to go straight forward, meeting one of the thick black casings around the wire, which Tehctar carefully held away with the rod, allowing Talwyn to pass through.

Talwyn slowly walked under Tehctar's outstretched arm, and gazed at the distant fog, wondering what was out there. They both heard a low growl and Tehctar grabbed her arm in fear, holding her back. He slipped past the wire and let it go, leaving it swinging behind them as they searched the tunnel for any sign of creature. "Up there," Talwyn mentioned, looking at the ceiling directly above them, and two green blobs of sludge, grew outwards towards, two red eyes forming out.

"Amoeboids!" yelled Tehctar, as Talwyn began to run out from under them. Ratchet and Qwark had no way of hearing the duo panicking as they blasted down more and more squads of soldiers. Clank, inside the closet with Sasha, slid the door slightly open and poked his eye out to view their surroundings. Gunfire blinded Clank's vision of everything except the parts of the hangar nearby, but unfortunately there was nothing to be seen.

"Clank!" yelled Ratchet's voice, as the gunfire immediately stopped, and the sound of two thumps rang into everyone's ears, including Tehctar and Talwyn's. Clank tried to look out again, but Sasha grabbed his arm and pulled him away, out of reach of the door, pressing her finger on her lip to keep Clank quiet. She waited for a few seconds, and heard footsteps nearby, before placing her eye in the empty space.

"Look at this," she muttered to Clank, and she moved out of the way so he could look. He popped his eye out the door, and saw that the soldiers were pacing around the hangar, standing guard as the fight had obviously stopped. Upon closer inspection, Ratchet and Qwark were missing, and the Unipose was being blocked by the soldiers, with a red commander searching inside.

"I have a plan," whispered Clank, pulling a pair of handcuffs out of his "stomach". "Keep still." Clank placed the handcuffs around Sasha's wrists and locked them into place, but didn't use the key so Sasha could escape if the plan failed. He grabbed Sasha's gun and then the hem of her green silky dress and pulled her along while opening the closet door and raising the attention of the soldiers.

Guns were held steady at Sasha and Clank as they marched along the length of the hangar, and stepped on the few stairs to met two guards with scythes that blocked the door. "Halt! What is your purpose?" Sasha gulped, thinking that they were doomed, but Clank had planned for this to happen and was ready to speak.

"I am a new class of soldier, Prisoner Escort Droid, and I am escorting this prisoner here who tried to escape to the Detention Facility," said Clank without stuttering at all, shocking the soldiers with his elegant style of speaking.

"Hmm? I have never heard of a Prisoner Escort Droid," said the soldier on the left, speaking like a stereotypical sports coach.

"The PEDs were only shipped in today by Mr. Ertin Billius, sir," Clank replied. The two soldiers blushed, never been called sir before, and were quite impressed.

"I guess that the Lombax girl escaped again," said the right soldier, and his partner nodded. Clank and Sasha realised that they mistook a Cazare for a Lombax, but were confused as to why they knew about a Lombax girl being held prisoner. Clank forced himself to nod in agreement.

"That is true, sir." The left soldier grew a cheeky grin. The two soldiers nodded to each other and pulled their scythes back, before stepping away from the door to let them through. "Thank you, sirs." The soldiers almost started laughing as Clank tugged Sasha along through the door, and was able to keep it in as the door closed behind them.

"Should we have let them through without clearance?" asked the right soldier, being sensible for once.

"Hey, I'll let anyone through who calls me sir. Yes! We are no longer the lowest class of soldier here, guarding unimportant doors and all," said the left soldier, then realising how unsuccessful they were in life, before returning to silence. Clank and Sasha heard the door close behind them, and they found themselves in a long white hallway, with a great many rounded rectangular doors situated on the sides.

"What do you think he meant by the Lombax girl? Do you think that Angela is here somewhere?" asked Sasha, keeping her eyes ahead, only looking elsewhere when reading the signs on the doors.

"Possibly, because Tachyon searched for all Lombaxes, and with the help of the VA, it's entirely plausible," said Clank, doing the same as Sasha as they walked down the empty corridor. Sasha grew a worried expression on her face, which stayed until Clank suddenly stopped, gazing at a door at the left.

"What's wrong, Clank?" asked Sasha, stopping as well, and then walking back to towards him. She looked at the door he was looking at, and read the scarlet sign on the front: "Detention Facility". "Why are we stopping here? It was just a story!"

"Don't you want to see if Angela is in here somewhere?" asked Clank, not taking his eyes away from the door.

"You really think she's here somewhere?"

"How many other female Lombaxes are in this dimension?" yelled Clank as soon as Sasha finished.

"I guess so…" said Sasha, bowing her head as Ratchet grabbed the hem of her dress again.

"I'll have to put you in a cell, because no doubt there would be guards inside. There you can make connections with the prisoners while I complete the mission of infiltrating the bridge," said Clank, hacking into the locked keypad, before opening the door unaware of his success. The guard in the middle of the room turned around and watched confused as Clank walked in and placed Sasha in the empty cell on the left, closest to the door.

"Hmmm…." he hummed, watching as Clank locked the cell door. Clank noticed the guard was watching, so he nodded to him contently, before trying to leave. The guard nodded back and hesitated to stop him until he had already left, unfortunate that he was still suspicious. "I guess one of the so-called Uniposers was captured. It's only matter of time until the secret weapon will destroy its "friends"…"

"So…you're saying that a Lombax, a blubbering imbecile and a Cazare have been captured and placed in the Detention Facility? My master will be very pleased," said Lawrence, communicating with the same guard that Clank met in the Detention Facility. He shut down the communications, turned around and walked ten steps to Nefarious who stood in the middle of the bridge with Master.

"Excuse me, sir, but Ratchet, Qwark and Sasha have all been captured by your soldiers." Nefarious and Master both turned around, very glad to hear this news.

"WONDERFUL!" exclaimed Nefarious.

"Now we'll just have to take out Talwyn, my good old friend Tehctar and that sneaky robot Clank," affirmed Master. The trio heard the door to the bridge open behind them, and they turned around. The little robot Clank stood at the door, carrying the two guns that belonged to Sasha and him on his back. "And speak of the devil…" Master signalled for a group of soldiers to attack, and they charged towards him to knock him out by force. Clank swiftly grabbed one of the guns and swung it, throwing the soldiers across the room.

Two rats ran across a small pipe at the top of the sewer tunnel as Tehctar and Talwyn fled from the two Amoeboids. Talwyn grabbed her pistol and fired two bullets, one missing but one hitting, causing it to multiply into two smaller Amoeboids. "Come on!" yelled Tehctar, pulling his gun out and pointing it at the Amoeboids as they slinked closer. When Talwyn passed him again, he quickly turned around, but at the same accidentally let go of the gun and reluctantly watched as the Amoeboid on the left ate it and grew to double the size.

"Crap!" he yelled as he caught up with Talwyn and turned right at a four-way intersection, meeting a blockage that smelled a King Amoeboid approaching. Tehctar gulped as a loud growl came closer and the silhouette of the King Amoeboid became visible behind the blockage. Green sewerage splash all over Talwyn and Tehctar's clothes as the King Amoeboid broke through, and they just manage to pass the two Amoeboids to the other side without being damaged.

"This is it, Talwyn. I have to…" panted Tehctar, before stopping and turning around to met his fate. Talwyn made herself stop, because he was curious as to what was being said by him.

"What do you mean?" she yelled. Tehctar ignored her completely, and watched as the Amoeboids stopped in front of him, wondering what he was doing.

"Get back!" he yelled, and Talwyn felt some unknown force push her far back, making her only able to see a small toy soldier figure of Tehctar. Suddenly he exploded in a shining yellow light, obliterating the Amoeboids and sending a ball of energy to expand until it dissipated in front of Talwyn's eyes. Everything went dark. Talwyn could only see a shadow where Tehctar stood. She slowly used the remaining energy in her legs to slowly stumble over to Tehctar, her vision spiralling all over the place.

Eventually, her legs failed and she fell onto a slimy object. "Ughh!" she exclaimed, thinking she had landed on waste, but her mind metaphorically exploded when she gazed upon the blob that used to be Tehctar, looking exactly like Master, except a pale blue…

Chapter 23 Preview

"_We should be fine down here!" yelled the pixelly voice of Master, turning the corner at the end of the tunnel with Nefarious, only to find themselves face to face with Talwyn. "Oh no, not another one. Wait, that's just the slutty one, I'll dispose of her easily." Talwyn's face turned red with anger from Master's comment, but stopped when he conjured a comet of lightning with a pink glow straight towards her._

"_Talwyn!" yelled the creature unconscious on the ground; his eyes opened and he floated upwards allowing him to stand straight up. He landed straight in front of Talwyn and too conjured a comet of lightning, except with a blue glow, and the two streams met, struggling to push each other in mid-air. "Run, Talwyn!" She was too shocked to move, and the beast realised he would have use more of his drained strength._


	23. When Forces Unite

_Rise of the Uniposers_

_Faced with the Scarzare again on Grokley, Ratchet and Clank flee into a cave, where they find they can teleport to different caves across the planet. They also discover that Talwyn and Sasha are alive, but they run away when the Scarzare scares them. Tehctar reunites with the group and they finally find Talwyn and Sasha again, but the Scarzare follows them. They are saved by Qwark, whose pet War Grok Snowball saved him from the being ripped to shreds. The Scarzare is once again killed, and the Unipose and Aphelion are repaired. They journey to the warship and __successfully infiltrate it undetected, although Ratchet and Qwark are captured. Clank poses as a prisoner escort and places Sasha in jail after they hear that Angela could possibly be held there. While Clank faces Master and Nefarious, Talwyn and Tehctar try to destroy the warship by traversing the sewers. When they are cornered by Amoeboids, Tehctar uses a phenomenal power to obliterate them, and Talwyn finds some mysterious and confusing changes to him…_

_Chapter 23: When Forces Unite_

"Psst! Ratchet!" whispered Sasha inside the dirty uncared-for cell as the guard was distracted again. Ratchet sat in his cell to the top-left of Sasha, carving a drawing into the ground with a piece of sharp broken metal. His ears rose from sound of Sasha's voice, and he looked over to her. He found a new source of hope when he saw her happy face, and he smiled along with her, his heart pounding in a different way than before.

"Alright, enough chit-chat!" yelled the guard, finding that the distraction was just a piece of wood thrown from Sasha. After Clank had left, Sasha had discovered that there was no-one in the detention facility except for Ratchet and Qwark. The two became quiet as the guard stood in between them, and he scoffed triumphantly before back to his normal paces. Sasha remembered watching a Secret Agent Clank movie where Clank got out of jail by pretending he was sick, and while supporting himself on the guard, he discretely took his keys.

"Oooh! Help! Please!" she yelled, clutching her stomach in supposed pain. Ratchet became worried and stood up, but realised what she was doing when she winked at him while getting up herself. The guard walked over to her cell and stood in front of her as she stumbled to the front bars.

"What's the matter?" he asked selfishly, not caring at all but just doing his job because of the wages he would make.

"I think I'm going to throw up!" yelled Sasha, putting on her best act so far.

"Humph, I'd like to see that!" scoffed the guard, suspecting that she was making the story up. Sasha realised that things weren't doing to plan, so she decided to distract while she grabbed his keys. She deliberately fell and her arms reached out through the cage, grabbing the guard's soldiers. He began to panic and pointed his pistol at her stomach.

"Help me…" she wheezed, letting her right arm fall and grab his keys as it fell limp beside her. The guard pushed her off, making her fall to the ground, but he did not seem to notice his keys were gone as he walked off to his normal duties again. Sasha took this opportunity and quietly opened the door to her cell, hoping to sneak up behind him and use his weapon against him.

The cell door creaked, and he immediately pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Sasha. "Stay where you are…" he sneered. Sasha did not want to be put back in jail, and she looked around for something to use against the guard. On the right side of her, beside the opposite cell was a conventional fire extinguisher, a piece of ancient technology that had survived through the ages, proving to be extremely useful.

"Come on, back in the cell," said the guard, waiting impatiently for his prisoner to get back inside. Sasha gave up and skulked back into her cell. She saw the guard lower his gun, and she immediately turned around and yanked the fire extinguisher off the door. Quickly pointing the nozzle at the guard, she blasted smoke at him, blinding his vision, and he madly fired his pistol.

"Sasha, I'm free!" yelled Ratchet, being able to see one of the lasers hit the lock of his cell door through the thick smoke. He got up and ran out, but not before kicking the guard in the crotch just in case. Sasha was just able to see Ratchet run towards her through the dissipating fog, and was shocked to feel him hug her tightly. "It's good to see you." Sasha returned the hug as a warm smile slowly grew on her face…

"Tehctar…?" asked Talwyn, cradling the pale blue blob in her arms, wondering what had happened to her young friend. The two black curved lines that were drawn on his body opened to show two lifeless eyes, the same colour as his skin. He squirmed around slowly and made himself fall from Talwyn's eyes. She stared at the muck, too shocked to let her arms down from their current position.

"Talwyn…" growled a smooth old voice perfect for opera singing, amplifying from the creature's body. Talwyn opened her mouth, but was too shocked to say anything to him. "Let me explain…" The two eyes closed again, as the beast was exhausted from the energy Tehctar used, and he fell to sleep once more. Talwyn tried to say anything, but was distracted by the sounds of footsteps splashing into the sewery water.

"We should be fine down here!" yelled the pixelly voice of Master, turning the corner at the end of the tunnel with Nefarious, only to find them face to face with Talwyn. "Oh no, not another one. Wait, that's just the slutty one, I'll dispose of her easily." Talwyn's face turned red with anger from Master's comment, but stopped when he conjured a comet of lightning with a pink glow straight towards her.

"Talwyn!" yelled the creature unconscious on the ground; his eyes opened and he floated upwards allowing him to stand straight up. He landed straight in front of Talwyn and too conjured a comet of lightning, except with a blue glow, and the two streams met, struggling to push each other in mid-air. "Run, Talwyn!" She was too shocked to move, and the beast realised he would have use more of his drained strength.

"What is this savior?" asked Master, not being able to see the twin on the other side. The blob pushed forwards with all his might, and the comet pushed the pink one back and towards Master and Nefarious, flinging them into the wall. They both managed to stand up and recover from the blow, but strangely, Nefarious was quiet and not yelling like normal. "Nefarious, we should be in range. Teleport us to the Backup Base."

Nefarious simply touched Master and they whisked away into thin-air. The mucky creature kept standing, and he laughed in triumph. "The Backup Base, eh? I knew there was some destination for this warship." He noticed Talwyn behind him.

"Who are you?" she peeped in fear and shock.

"Well, I'm a scientist, and my name is…" The beast stopped in mid-sentence and fell to ground unconscious once again. Talwyn sighed and was frustrated that she couldn't get any information from him. She heard more footsteps again, and became scared that more of the VA could be out to get her, but she became calm when she saw the stubby little robot feet that belonged to Clank turn the corner and stop, before approaching her.

"Where's Master and Nefarious?" asked Clank, looking around for the nasty duo. "I wanted to finish them after I had damaged Nefarious' speech circuits." That was when he noticed the blob lying on the ground unconscious, and he was not able to figure out what had happened, unlike many times before. "Talwyn?" He then noticed that she was speechless, and let her stay in silence as he picked the creature up. "Let's get back to the Unipose."

"Tehctar…" muttered Talwyn, reaching her hand out to stop Clank just before he turned around. "He…exploded…" Clank's eyes turned wide, and he thought he knew what had happened to Tehctar.

"Now how to get back to the Unipose…" Clank looked around, wondering where to go. He had no idea where he had come from because it was a long chase in the sewers, and Talwyn seemed too speechless to tell him where to go, even though he doubted she knew. "Do you have Tehctar's tracking device?" He looked at Talwyn's face, and then realised that if Tehctar "exploded", his clothes would have been obliterated.

He heard a creak, and was then shaken by an earthquake, and heard the sounds of rockets firing nearby, and another earthquake shook him. "Come on!" Clank ran towards the sound of the rockets firing, and saw a sheet of smoke blind the path ahead, but he ran in anyway. He safely dropped the blob and soon felt his whole weight drop, and then felt a force grab him. He looked down and managed to see the hull of the warship, and his eyes followed the arm that grabbed him, and was glad to see that Talwyn was getting more alert.

"Ratchet, I told I was a bad pilot!" yelled Sasha from somewhere in the room, and Clank saw through his see-through eyes that past the smoke above him was the Unipose jammed in from above the sewers, having shot its way through most of the warship. Sasha was sitting in the pilot's seat, trying to get the Unipose back flying, but she couldn't see Talwyn and Clank through the thick smoke. Talwyn hadn't noticed the Unipose either and she casually pulled Clank's tiny weight back up onto the sewer, and she tried to gather her voice again.

"Sasha! It's Clank!" yelled Clank upwards, and Talwyn was wondering what the hell Clank was doing and thought that he was crazy. After thinking a little while, she then realised that the sound of rockets was the Unipose's, and that they were shooting their way through the ship.

"Clank?" asked Sasha excitedly, so she quickly opened the door without protruding the stairs out, and she realised that Clank was looking up at her directly below. Laughing, she grabbed a rope from arms reach, tied it to the handle of the door and hopped down with its distance end to end. Clank caught her in his stubby petite arms, her mass meaning nothing to him, and he propped her back up on the floor.

"Where's Tehctar?" asked Sasha, expecting an immediate answer, but when she looked at Talwyn and Clank, they wouldn't tell her anything. She had only realised what had happened when she spotted Clank looking down at Master's mirror image, and suddenly knew what Tehctar had meant when he had showed her and Talwyn his name. Solemnly, she scooped the being up in her arms, and began climbing back up the rope.

"Come on, Talwyn," muttered Clank, hoisting the swaying lead to climb up after Sasha. Talwyn began to come out of her shock because she too remembered the events on the Unipose where Tehctar had shown them his real name, but she did not understand why he couldn't inform Ratchet. She now knew that Tehctar had shown his true form. Ratchet had noticed that Sasha was missing from the cockpit, and looked down out the door and smiled to see his friends safe and sound…in a sewer.

"You having a good time down there?" he asked rhetorically and sarcastically. Sasha was too busy using her minute strength to climb the rope, so Ratchet kneeled downward and hoisted Sasha's arm. He struggled to pull all of her mass with one arm, but he finally managed to haul her upwards onto the floor of the cockpit, and then he found out that she was carrying a blue splotch in her arms.

"Sasha?" he asked, staring at her blank face before she realised what Ratchet was asking about. She gathered the sapphire individual up and gradually walked out of the cockpit into the dining room, where Qwark laid asleep on one of the beds. Sasha placed the creature on the bed alongside Qwark as Ratchet charged in to see what was going on.

"Sasha, what is that thing? It looks just like Master!" yelled Ratchet. Sasha kept quiet and turned around at a snail's pace, just as Clank and Talwyn ran in as well, wondering what Ratchet and Sasha where talking about.

"It's Tehctar," confirmed Sasha, looking at Talwyn who looked like she was going to faint, but nodded her head in agreement weakly. Clank didn't move a muscle, not shocked at all at Tehctar's change. "Ratchet, I've known since before we took care of the Scarzare. So has Talwyn." Ratchet's eyes turned wide, feeling betrayed as to why his two favourite girls didn't tell him about Tehctar at all.

"How...? The bandits…" muttered Ratchet, jogging Sasha and Talwyn's memories about the bandits tracking Tehctar's true form.

"Wait a minute...that means the bandit's will attack, and they'll think he's on the warship!" yelled Sasha. "Come on, if we leave now, the warship will be mistaken for ours!" She shoved past the group standing at the doorway and headed into the cockpit, ready to fly out of the warship and towards the Backup Base. Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank joined her in the cockpit, trying to keep up with her fast pace.

"But how did you know?" asked Ratchet, sitting in the right co-pilot seat, still wondering how Sasha knew.

"He wrote his true name, but was only able to give us a sign by writing "Master"," said Talwyn, finally out of her extensive distress. "We did understand at first, but now I know that he and Master are connected somehow, possibly by relation. Sasha, we better get out of here or we may be shot down with the warship. You better put the cloaking device on again."

"Of course!" yelled Sasha excitedly, putting her finger up the air. "Ummm, does anyone know how to turn it on?" Ratchet out of his chair in disappointment, while Talwyn sat in the left co-pilot seat and tried to figure out which button it was. Clank walked up to the two girls to help them find the button while Ratchet gathered himself up and hopped back up on the chair.

"There we go," said Clank, pulling a lever down, and the familiar pixelly sound washed over the area of the Unipose. "Are you sure you can pilot this safely, because judging from your entry in the sewer…"

"I'm fine!" snapped Sasha, boosting the fiery engines that blackened the wall of the sewers. She fired some more rockets and they travelled through the broken hole and hit both the ceiling and the other wall, allowing the Unipose to fly up out of the dirty nether regions of the warship. Two soldiers stood conversing in the cafeteria, when an earthquake shook them and an invisible white bullet-shaped ship flew upwards firing visible rockets at its ceiling.

"What the f…" The soldier lost control of himself and wet his pants as the Unipose passed through the cafeteria and blasted through the ceiling. The other soldier looked at his partner, and laughed mockingly at his wet underwear. Thick black smoke rushed out of the hull of the warship, opposite to the Backup Base which was now situated nearby, and the invisible Unipose discreetly drifted out, occasionally stopping and starting due to Sasha's bad piloting.

"So we should be at the Backup Base now, shouldn't we, because if Master and Nefarious teleported…" said Talwyn, thinking about what they should do next without the leadership of Tehctar.

"That is true, Talwyn," said an unfamiliar old wise voice, alarming the Uniposers. Talwyn was the first one to turn around, but her worry soon turned to joy when she saw the blue creature standing up just like Master, except he carried an old wooden walking stick. Ratchet, Clank and Sasha definitely did see a likeness to Master, as Talwyn was the only one who had heard him speak before.

"Well, you certainly look…interesting," began Talwyn. "Care to explain your story before you faint again?" Talwyn laughed lightly, as Tehctar stumbled over to Talwyn's seat, needing somewhere to sit, so Talwyn politely moved off to let him. Talwyn's heart level rose as she waited for Tehctar to regain his strength he lost while walking and explain his true form.

"Like I said, I am a scientist," began Tehctar. "I was working in my lab on Rancine, trying to find a process of successful cloning. I completed my machine, but when I tested it, I created an imperfect copy that you now know as Master. He was discoloured and too had a scar, except his cheek is non-existent so he was able to hide it. At this time, my name was too difficult to pronounce to people so I searched for a new one. Anyway, this copy of me was evil, and nearly killed me by throwing me into the ocean and blowing up my lab. He escaped, thinking I was dead, so I decided to settle my revenge using a new persona. I had the ability to shape-shift, and I switched to the first being I saw, a young Cazarean boy who was fishing by the shore. Acquiring the use of some transport by friendly travellers, an unexpected detour took me to the Agorian Battleplex, where I thought I could brush up on my skills by entering in the competition. That was when I first saw the famous Ratchet, walking in, and then I decided what my new name would be. I'm surprised that no-one realised that Tehctar was Ratchet backwards, but guess its just part of my mysterious personality. Soon after, I tried to follow Ratchet through the help of another Vullard traveller named Arv, and we followed Aphelion in the Unipose, but the engines failed and we crashed on Dethrona. Just my luck that you were there too soon after, and so I helped you take out the cloning facility, but when I saw that Master had realised I was a threat and was his source by sending out the Scarzare to help some bandits take me out who were just basically bounty hunters. He doesn't know that killing me would remove him too, but it's easier to just take out the clone, right? I mean, cloning could be revolutionary! Oh, sorry, kind of drifted off there. That's the story, did you like it?"

Talwyn's mouth hung open in confusion, lost from the long fast story that Tehctar babbled on about. "Could you repeat that last part?"

"When did you get lost?" sighed Tehctar.

"Ummm, from about…when you said you're a scientist." Tehctar's blobby body shrank into itself, and just got the very memorable Clank to explain it slowly while he worked things out with the cloaking device. Tapping a few controls with a hand he formed through his malleable skin, he worked the cloaking device and with ease piloted the rusty Unipose around the damaged warship, like he had been doing this since the beginning of the universe. However, beyond Tehctar's wildest expectations, instead of the usual space station, the Backup Base was a tiny portal of rainbow coloured energy.

"It's…" Tehctar tried to look away, but something captivated him. It could have been the beauty, it could have been the shock, or it could have even been a spell. No matter, the other Uniposers noticed the light too, but were able to look away unlike Tehctar. He just kept staring in awe, and didn't notice the light growing brighter and wider, until Tehctar's eyes were filled with it. Slowly, the light that flowed into Tehctar's eyes turned white, and was helpless as he was removed from the pilot's seat of the Unipose, leaving nothing except a transceiver behind.

After a moment of shocked staring into blank space, it was Ratchet who first spotted the transceiver. "Oooh! The new VG-20000!" He ran to the pilot's seat and literally swiped the transceiver, and was disappointed. Due to Ratchet's exclamation, everyone snapped out of their trance, and Clank easily took the transceiver away from him.

"Hello? Is there anyone there?" yelled someone through the transceiver, knocking over Clank with the force of the sound. "We seem to have picked up a blip in the Woldgon Galaxy at coordinates 178,956 and were wondering if there is anyone picking up our message."

"This is the sentry robot Clank, reporting from the Unipose at coordinates 178,956 and a sudden moment caused a transceiver to appear in our cockpit. Has this occurred to you?" asked Clank into the transceiver while checking the coordinates.

"Correct. A transceiver magically spawned nearby. Did you say your name was Clank? Because this is Mac of the Agorian Battleplex."

"What?" exclaimed Ratchet in disbelief.

"This is Myxia of the Spectrum, I have been listening to your conversation and I too have been gifted with a transceiver."

"Hello, Myxia, my name is Clank. Now Mac, I was wondering if you could help us here at coordinates 178,956, since we have waged war on the Villainous Alliance, consisting of Dr. Nefarious, Lawrence, Gleeman Vox, Percival Tachyon, Otto Destruct, Drek and Master, and we fear this may be the final battle. We need as many reinforcements as possible, and I was wondering if you could send some ships over from the Battleplex."

"Excuse me, did you say Otto Destruct?" asked Myxia. "I will join your side in this fight, because I have some personal history with the imbecile. I will arrive at coordinates 178,956 in my fighter shortly."

"Did you say you were from the Unipose?" asked another voice through the transceiver.

"Arv!" shouted Ratchet. "You got a transceiver too? It seems that all the people so far that have received transceivers had some history with the participants of this battle."

"You're right…" muttered Talwyn.

"This is Arv indeed. I don't want my old ship harmed, so I will join you, for the sake my wife and child."

"Congratulations on your child, Arv!" exclaimed Sasha, jumping up and down from all the familiar faces.

"This is Skrunch of Banana Six. We are travelling near your airspace and want to join the fight, if not to help my old pal Qwark." Qwark gasped at being able to understand Skrunch, and then remembered the similar situation with the junkyard monkey on Mernasia.

"Skrunch, how have you been going all these years!" asked Qwark excitedly.

"Paradise compared to my time with you." Qwark's eyes bugged out and he fell over in shock, leaving the Uniposers snickering. "Even my friend from Mernasia hated you when you came to his junkyard."

"Well this is awkward, as soon as I travelled to this universe, I found a transceiver on the floor of my ship. My name is Hugon on the ship Vireti Ma along with Brettu."

"Hello, Hugon and Brettu, this is Clank of the Unipose, we are currently in a war against the Villainous Alliance. Do any of these names ring a bell? Percival Tachyon, Otto-"

"Percival Tachyon? I remember that nice fella."

"Is he so nice when I tell you he tried to take over the Polaris Galaxy?" asked Mac on the transceiver.

"Wow…really? Looks like he has to explain why he didn't arrive at my sister's wedding! I will join you. I am guessing your co-ordinates are 178,956," finished Hugon.

"We will join you too," said Arv and Skrunch in unison.

"Great," said Clank. As the Unipose remained stable, two ships from Mac arrived, followed by Myxia's ship, then Arv's new ship, Banana Six and Vireti Ma. More people became aware of the transceiver, including Tyuio's family, Ertin Billius (having been disgraced from the damage the VA was causing), Yuni, Fautso, Ikla, Shadow, Derto, Planu, Werks, the commander from the Scarzare's base, and Ghig (sent by the Oracle). All combined, they formed a fearsome battalion, ready to fly into the huge rainbow light to save Tehctar and take down the Backup Base, whatever it actually was. Everyone from the adventure had arrived.

"Is everyone ready to take down the Villainous Alliance and rescue Tehctar?" asked Clank, and was responded with a loud cheer through the transceiver. Almost simultaneously, the monsters turned to the hypnotic view, and all switched their engines to maximum. "Let's do this." With the Unipose leading, the metallic beasts roared as they charged through the miracle into the unknown. The Unipose was the first one to actually have a possible glimpse at the wonder inside the portal.

"It's a…what?" blabbered Clank as the world flashed around him, filling his eyes with images of the past. Many times did he see Ratchet, along with all the people he had met on his past adventures, and even this one. Eventually, the nostalgia filled him like a greedy dinner and he couldn't handle it no more, forcing his robotic brain to fall into a trance. To Clank, it was instantaneous when he was awoken by Talwyn's voice, and expected to be found on the floor of the Unipose unconscious. But the colour of the ceiling above him seemed different in some sort of way, even though it was grey like the Unipose.

"Clank, is something wrong?" asked Talwyn worriedly as she noticed that Clank was looking at the ceiling funny, and wondered if he was possibly brain damaged. Clank shifted his body upwards so he sat upright and soon realised that he wasn't in the Unipose, he wasn't even with any of his friends except for Talwyn. He looked around quickly and immediately deduced that he was in a blank grey room with no doors and no textures what-so-ever, only him, Talwyn and the boxy walls. For a moment he thought he was in limbo.

"Yeah, I know. I was thrown here too," said Talwyn. "I think the same happened to me as it did to you and Tehctar. Speaking of Tehctar, he should be here, shouldn't he?" Talwyn stood up from her crouching position, and stared around the blank room in confusion.

Meanwhile, the battalion continued through the mystical portal, while a disturbed Ratchet came to a revelation. "Hey, everyone! Listen!" Despite his calls, all of the other people were too busy to listen to him. "I think I know what has happened," he continued even though no-one was listening. "I think…that by Tehctar, Talwyn and Clank's expressions, they all wanted to find out what is in here, and so somehow they were taken and shown, while all the people who are afraid and don't want to find out what is actually in this light and so are stuck in a limbo of sorts."

Sasha, who took over control of the ship, was the only who bothered to listen and immediately placed the Unipose on auto-pilot, before spinning around in the pilot's seat to face Ratchet. "You mean that Tehctar, Clank and Talwyn are in the real Backup Base right now? And we are in endless space? That actually, surprisingly, sounds plausible. I mean, it's called the Backup Base for a reason, right? Ratchet, can you get in Aphelion and scout this "endless space"?"

Before Sasha could even get a response, Ratchet had already run through the weapons room to the certain ladder that allowed access to Aphelion, which the Cazarean Tehctar had created during one of their first adventures on the Unipose. Immediately, he began climbing and almost reached the top when he was stopped.

"Ratchet!" He looked down and gazed upon Sasha looking up at him. "I want to come." Ratchet smiled and reached his hand down.

Tehctar opened his eyes. Immediately as his eyelids pulled back did he realise that he was somewhere he didn't want to be. His weak head fell over to the left side and forced him to fix his eyes on the person next to him. His eyes were too blurry to make it out, so he just gave up and rested for a few minutes. After a few minutes, he tried to get up, but found that he was electrically bound to the hard bed he was laying on. Quick deducing told him he was facing forwards, but a little bit higher than his normal eye level.

"I see you've met your counterpart," said the gruff voice of Master, entering the room with two armed soldiers by his side. Tehctar quickly whipped his head towards Master and stared at him in anger and fear. He didn't understand what Master meant by counterpart, but he quickly clarified this.

"Ahh, your vision is hazy, and you don't even know who is beside you. Why don't you concentrate…?" Following Master's suggestion, Tehctar slowly angled his head to the left and squinted his eyes to try and make out the shape of the person unconscious beside him. As his lost vision began to refill his eyes, he finally understood what had happened, and widened his eyes in shock at what could happen to the Uniposers.

The Aphelion charged back towards the lost battalion floating the multi-coloured space around them. Sasha and Ratchet had both tried to find a possible escape to this madness, but had deduced that they were stuck in a form of limbo, although they weren't dead yet. Back in the cockpit of the Unipose, Ratchet and Sasha joined Qwark, who had stopped the battalion because he had no idea how to fly the Unipose. "I think Ratchet is right by the fact that we are not on the Backup Base because we were reluctant to find out what is there," said Sasha.

"There is only one way to find out," said Ratchet, who then closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He felt a tingle in his hands while deeply wishing he was on the Backup Base. He quickly smiled when he realised it was working.

"Ratchet! What are you doing?" yelled Sasha, but Ratchet was too overjoyous to answer her. He felt the adrenaline pumping, and knew it had finished when his heart calmed down. His eyes fluttered open, and all he saw was grey. Not the grey of the blank room, but the grey of Clank's metallic skin.

"Ratchet! How did you get here?" exclaimed Talwyn in excitement. Ratchet ignored her and looked around the room, quickly noticing the fact that was as generic as generic could be.

"Believe me, you don't want to know," then answering the question. "How can we get out of this place?"

"I have no idea," said Clank, so Ratchet just boredly looked at his arm until his eyes widen and a big grin formed on his face. "What?" Clank asked, eagerly wanting to understand his idea.

"Do you remember your old friend, the Geo-Laser?" asked Ratchet. Talwyn's mouth dropped, trying to believe that she didn't imagine using it.

"I used it on Lomtaber to scale that temple," responded Clank. "So now I can use it to take a chunk out of that wall." He pointed to the wall left of him. "Or that wall. Or that wall. Or that wall. I don't care." He aimlessly decided on aiming at the wall behind him. The energy drill popped out of his hand and a laser protruded out of his back, ready to rip out that chunk.

"Do it!" yelled Ratchet, who watched in awe as the green laser lit up the dull grey room, and before he could blink Clank had cut a gigantic doorway out of the wall. However, outside that wall was the rainbow atmosphere of the portal again, and his and his friends weight lift off the ground. Due to the lack of oxygen, they were left choking to death inside the room. Ratchet desperately made an attempt to take one final look outside the room, and when he swam out, he turned around and gazed at the square room floating alone in this endless space.

Sasha sat in the pilot's seat on the Unipose, her hand on her cheek, bored to death at the battle that was not happening. She was still wondering what happened to Ratchet, but she prevented herself or Qwark from going as well because they needed to control this stationary battalion. The group of ships has parked in a campfire style, with four ships facing each other, and the others just piling around them.

Sasha looked over at Qwark on the right, who was for some reason polishing his nails out of boredom. She picked up the transceiver after hearing some impatient mumbling. "I think we have somehow been defeated or we somehow won, and I would send you home but it looks like we are stuck here. She then heard a quick burst of static through the transceiver.

"This is Myxia. Incoming, 9 o'clock." Sasha looked to her left and saw the figure of someone who looked like they were being pushed, as their limbs were outstretched and were being pushed back by the wind. She could then make out a purple gas surrounding them and the figure's purple gaseous eyes opening, followed by a vicious growl. A battalion of tiny ships surrounded the giant figure.

"Everyone, attack the ships until I figure out what this giant is." All ships except the Unipose turned to the arriving wave as Sasha tried to make out the face of the giant. Quickly, she figured out it was girl, but the girl had some familiarity to a person she had seen. She looked at the ponytail, and then the fur, and finally the face, until she realised that Ratchet had shown her a picture of this girl he had met.

Angela Cross.


	24. Fatal Defeat

_Rise of the Uniposers_

_After infiltrating the VA's warship, Ratchet and Qwark escape the prison cell after being rescued by Sasha and Clank. Meanwhile, Talwyn and Tehctar get chased by Amoeboids through the sewer, and Tehctar uses a power of some sort to destroy them, however he ends up as an unconscious blob. Nefarious and Master show up, but Tehctar awakens and saves her. Nefarious and Master retreat to the Backup Base, but Tehctar faints again. Sasha arrives in the Unipose to take them by blasting through the warship and they escape easily. The Backup Base appears as a rainbow portal, and after gathering a battalion, they enter. Tehctar explains that the blob is his true form, but he disappears in a flash after staring at the portal. After some confusion, Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank end up in a grey room, while Sasha and the battalion are trapped inside the portal. While Clank blasts through the wall, they end up choking in the lack of oxygen, while a group of ships arrive to take out the battalion, with an experimented Angela Cross…_

_Chapter 24: __Fatal Defeat_

A single oxygen container with three masks hanging from it drifted throughout the multi-coloured area. Ratchet felt like he couldn't hold his breath any longer, and his consciousness started to drift away. His eyes fluttered a few times, and finally started to close. His eyes sprang open again when he felt something hard whack his head.  
Ratchet looked to his right while rubbing the tenderness away, and saw that oxygen tank beside him. He smile and made a happy noise, and quickly yanked the nearest mask and inhaled deeply when it covered his mouth. He grabbed the tank under his shoulder and swam back into the grey building.

Talwyn's eyes were half-open, but she had lost consciousness and Ratchet had hoped it wasn't too late. He placed the second mask to her mouth and listened to her chest, hoping for a heartbeat. He began to panic after he couldn't find one, and he moved his head violently, until he distinct heard a thump on her chest. He exhaled in relief, and looked over at Clank, ready to get the three mask ready, but then realised that Clank didn't need oxygen. Clank was just trying to swim through the air, but found that he was unable to.

"Ratchet…" gasped Talwyn as he was smirking at Clank's attempts at swimming through the air. He turned to face her, and saw that she had regained consciousness, and was looking at him with a smile on her face. Immediately, she removed both her and Ratchet's masks and deeply kissed him, ignoring the fact that they were both unable to take in air.

Eventually, when she felt her consciousness fading again, she reluctantly let go of the kiss and placed the mask back on her mouth, and Ratchet did the same with his. "I'm so glad to see you," she mouthed, and Ratchet smiled at her lovingly.

"God, I'm sick of this mushy stuff," said a voice unlike Clank's. Ratchet quickly darted his head around, trying to see who spoke, ignoring the fact that the oxygen container mysteriously appeared. Giving up, he swam over to Clank, and grabbed him since he was stuck, before return to Talwyn.

"So what do we do now?" asked Ratchet, looking around mindlessly. The trio heard a whirring sound, and Ratchet suddenly realised a ship from the battalion was close by. Pulling Talwyn and Clank by their arms, he swam towards the hole blasted by Clank's Geo-Laser, and suddenly an orange and brown ship with giant chains hanging from beneath it passed by the hole. "HEY! OVER HERE!" yelled Ratchet. Waiting for a response, they heard the roaring engines fade and then reappear as the vessel looped the grey room and slowed in front of the gap.

Sasha sharply turned the steering wheel up and right behind the possessed Angela's head and blasted another of the small pyramidal ships away.

"Banana Six, status report!" yelled Sasha into the transceiver. She waited a moment while avoiding enemy fire, but began to worry when she got no response. "Banana Six!"

"Krzzzz…fine…krzzz…blasting…krzzz…away…" stated one of the monkey operators inside the banana-shaped ship.

"Okay, I'm hoping that means you are okay," said Sasha, looking back at two enemy ships firing at the Unipose's engines.

"Qwark, seatbelts," said Sasha, as she strapped her's on. She looked over and saw that Qwark already had his on. She smiled quickly, and then slammed the wheel to the left, throwing the Unipose into a spiral.

Since the enemy ships were computer-controlled, they tracked the Unipose's movements and started spiralling too. Sasha kept spinning until she heard the thankful sound of the spinning enemy ships colliding and exploding.

"This is Myxia. I have picked up three hitchhikers. One is a Lombax, one is a Markazian and one is a robot."

"It's them!" exclaimed Qwark, who undone his seatbelts and stood up. A rocket hit the Unipose and Qwark was thrown across the cockpit, squashed up against the walls.

"I'll meet you over at the graveyard!" yelled Sasha, as the possessed Angela grasped Ghig's ship and crushed it with the force of her grip, killing him instantly.

The graveyard was a cluster of destroyed ships away from the main battle, containing many enemy ships and a few unfortunate participants on the Uniposers' side. Myxia's ship, the Spectrum, had arrived at the graveyard quickly, and saw Ghig's ship floating towards the cluster.

The commander at the Scarzare's base led his squadron weaving through Angela's legs and firing at any enemy ships in his way. Sasha watched this amazing display of leadership as she flew out of the battlefield and towards the graveyard to met Myxia.

As she started to fly out, she heard an enemy ship coming from the right. She turned the Unipose to face it, but was surprised to see it pass her and start to fly out of the battlefield as well.

"Tyuio, I need you to follow that enemy ship retreating right near me," she spoke into the transceiver.

"Roger that," said Tyuio's father. Their ship started following the escaping ship, while Tyuio's friends, fought off any foes attacking them.

The Unipose crawled towards the graveyard while Qwark finally got back in his seat and put his belt back on. The Spectrum awaited their arrival, and hid in amongst the destroyed ships as to not attract attention.

The Unipose slowed right down and nudged the shrapnel away as it made its way towards the centre to board the Spectrum. Sasha turned the Unipose so it was parallel, and the Spectrum fired an oxygen tunnel to the door of the Unipose.

The oxygen tunnel looked like a long plank, coloured orange to match the Spectrum. There was a cyan energy cylinder around it, allowing those inside to breathe.

Qwark and Sasha both got out of their seatbelts and opened the door to meet their friends. Myxia opened her door too, which opened like it belonged to a garage.

The woman had a sleek dark yellow face, and wore an orange ponytail. She wore a blue jumpsuit, and black combat boots. Myxia strode behind Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank, who smiled at Sasha as they were nudged by Myxia's Cyber-Scythe.

Sasha ran towards Ratchet with her arms outstretched as Qwark did the same to Clank, squashing the robot in an embrace. Sasha's body collided with Ratchet's as they hugged like they were stuck with super-glue.

Talwyn felt a little disappointed as she remembered she was still battling with Sasha over Ratchet, but completely forgot due to the major battles that were going on.

"We better get back to the fight. They'll need us out there," said Myxia, walking back into her ship as the oxygen container from before rolled out and stopped at the back of Talwyn's feet.

"Hmm?" asked Talwyn as she turned around and looked at the oxygen tank.

"You're welcome," it said as it transformed into Tehctar. Sasha and Ratchet released each other from the hug, and Qwark and Clank did the same.

"Tehctar, what happened to you?" asked Talwyn.

"I was captured by Master, but I can't tell you anything else," said the blob.

"More secrets?" asked Ratchet.

"Well, here's a secret I'd thought you'd figure out: Tehctar is Ratchet backwards," he replied. Ratchet thought for a while, and then realised he was right.

"Guys, I have something to share," announced Sasha. Talwyn expected the worst. "The enemy we are fighting is much bigger than you think. I have witnessed that the leader of the battalion fighting us is a gigantic possessed version of Angela Cross."

Tehctar's eyes turned the widest out of all of them. Sasha looked around and could have sworn that all of her friends except Qwark had turned to stone. "Well, come on! We have a fight out there to finish! Let's go!" She turned around in anger and ran towards the Unipose.

Eventually, the others began to follow her until they were all squashed in the cockpit. The Spectrum took off and blasted over the graveyard, back towards the giant Angela. The Unipose did the same, but was puny in comparison to the Spectrum.

"I'll go help in Aphelion! Talwyn, you want to come?" asked Ratchet.

"No, thanks," answered Talwyn, shocking Ratchet that she didn't want to go with him.

"How about you, Clank?" he asked. Clank looked at him, a little bored from the lack of excitement in the battle.

"I guess," he said, hopping off the shelf he was sitting on and following him to the ladder.

"This is Tyuio. We have followed the enemy ship to a platform of some sort. We are sending you a route as we speak." The console beeped, indicating that the route had been sent.

"Thanks, Tyuio," said Sasha into the transceiver. "Arv, you are in charge of battle strategy." Talwyn ran to the dining room, where Ratchet was about take off.

"Ratchet, follow us to the actual Backup Base!" she yelled, and Ratchet nodded back to her, before taking off. The Spectrum re-entered the battlefield and headed straight for Angela, trying to shake her out of the trance.

The Unipose followed, but headed straight for the path that Tyuio had left behind for them. Sasha could see his ship coming back from the scouting mission, and she passed them happily.

As Aphelion followed the Unipose, Ratchet began to wonder what the purpose of the grey room was. Was it a prison intended for Tehctar? Was it just a diversion from the real Backup Base?

"Ratchet, are you okay?" asked Sasha through the comlink, breaking his thoughts.

"Yeah, why are you asking?" answered Ratchet with another question.

"Because Aphelion is drifting away from us," said Sasha. Ratchet looked up and saw that the Unipose had disappeared. He looked over to Talwyn who was pointing to the right, where the Unipose was flying away from them.

"Ahh!" yelled Ratchet as he sharply turned Aphelion towards the Unipose.

Arv shot at Angela's neck as he leaded the commander's squad around the waist of Angela, shooting enemy fighters as they tied Angela's arms to her waist with tow cable. Eventually she was unable to move her arms, but she kicked upwards and took out two of twelve remaining fighters of the commander's squadron.

"Arv, this is Dento," said the JMC judge. "I've been taking out some ships near the beast's face, and I've noticed something. There is a scar on her right cheek…"

Sasha stopped the Unipose when she saw it. A single metal platform, with underground rooms going as far down as the eyes could see, floated there in the rainbow space, with every member of the Villainous Alliance on it.

"Ratchet, land the Aphelion on top of us, I have a plan," declared Tehctar, always having something up his sleeve.

Thirty minutes later, the Uniposers dispersed from the dining room, with Ratchet, Clank, Sasha, Talwyn and Qwark all climbing in Aphelion, while Tehctar patiently waited in the cockpit of the Unipose.

Aphelion took off, and rocketed off as fast as it could to the real Backup Base. As it soared over the metal platform, Ratchet opened the hood and one by one they jumped out landing in a star formation around the VA.

"Surrender," stated Ratchet as Aphelion began to fly off back to the Unipose.

"Never," said Master as his five colleagues charged towards the Uniposers; Vox towards Ratchet, Otto towards Qwark, Tachyon towards Talwyn, Nefarious towards Sasha and Drek towards Clank.

As the five pairs collided in combat, Master whipped out a button and pressed it. The floors below the pairs disappeared, and they fell to their one on one battles. "Now," said Master as he was alone with Tehctar sitting in the Unipose. "Come."

Ratchet wrestled with Vox as they fell endlessly. Ratchet looked down for a second and was met with a punch, but learned that lava was awaiting them below. Vox looked down and realised this too, so he pushed Ratchet away and activated his floatation shoes.

Vox was stopped just before the lava as Ratchet tossed himself on his back and waited to collide with the hot lava. "Wait a minute," said Ratchet. "If we're underground, then this is magma, not lava. Huh." Ratchet's back collided with the magma and Vox looked away as too not see the gruesomeness.

"You, sir, fail," said Ratchet as Vox looked back at the Lombax, lying on top of the lava like he was immune.

"But how?" exclaimed Vox.

"Thank my good old friend, Arv," said Ratchet as he sat up and stood on the Lavaboard that was previously attached to his back.

"Bastard," sneered Vox as he landed on a flat-headed droid that was working in the magma.

"Aren't I?" taunted Ratchet, daring Vox to battle him hand-to-hand on his Lavaboard. Vox jumped for him, but he moved the Lavaboard out of the way, leaving him falling towards the magma.

Vox quickly tried to activate his floatation boots as his robotic hand was outstretched, and they quickly activated, bringing him upright as he landed back on the same droid he stood on.

Ratchet snickered at Vox, who was confused at what he was laughing at, until he looked at his right hand. The robotic hand that used to be there was now replaced by ash and smoke.

Ratchet took this chance and grabbed his wrench out of its socket. He threw it so it spun like a boomerang and it tackled Vox, making his whole body fall through the lava. As soon as Ratchet grabbed the wrench, his weight fell through the hole that gaped in the floor.

Talwyn opened her eyes, and realised that she and Tachyon had landed very quickly. She held her head up and looked around, seeing that she was somehow in a forest. She tried to stand up, but felt a cane push her back down and a weight jump on her back.

"Get off me!" she yelled.

"Where is the Dimensionator?" yelled Tachyon, poking Talwyn in the back.

"I don't know!" Talwyn yelled again. "Plus, that was years ago! Looks like you're suffering from "dimensia"!" Tachyon's face turned red as she laughed so much that Tachyon was knocked off her back.

Talwyn took this chance to pick up Tachyon and stand up, holding him far enough that he could hopelessly try to attack her. She picked up his cane and threw it away into the depths of the lush, green forest situated inside the metallic walls.

"Give me back my cane!" squealed the puny Emperor Percival Tachyon. Eventually, he broke free of Talwyn's hold and began to run into the trees.

"Oh, no, you don't!" exclaimed Talwyn, and she followed him into the trees as well. She emerged near a flowing river a little way beneath the ground, and looked around for Tachyon.

"Curse you, woman for throwing my cane into a tree!" yelled the scratchy voice of Tachyon, who didn't even realise Talwyn was behind him. He was looking up at a high tree, where his cane sat on top of one of the branches.

Talwyn stuck up behind him, ready to grab his small body and wrapped her arms around him. However, she noticed that she instead wrapped her arms around herself. "Nice try, Markazian," said Tachyon, who was climbing the tall tree.

"Damn it! Climbing trees was never one of my strengths!" she yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. Tachyon reached the branch and took back his cane, so Talwyn decided to escape before she got pounded again.

Over the river, a vine was lucky enough to be hanging from a nearby tree, so she quickly grabbed it and swung across as Tachyon slid down the trunk of the tree. As she rode across, the branch snapped but held onto the tree, causing the vine swing a little lower, slamming Talwyn into the face of the cliff.

"Hah!" exclaimed Tachyon as Talwyn let go of the vine and held onto the edge of the cliff. "Time for me to go across." Tachyon didn't realise the branch had snapped.

He ran towards the vine and grabbed it, but his eyes turned wide when he realised he was falling. Tachyon looked up and saw the branch the vine was tied to falling down with him, until water enveloped his eyes.

"HELP!" he yelled to Talwyn as he was pushed down the stream. She was still holding onto the edge of the cliff and couldn't help him, and heard his cries fade until they eventually stopped.

Talwyn finally climbed up and laid down on the dirt ground, sweat running down her face. All she could hear were the birds chirping and river running. Then she felt a force push her downwards. Another trapdoor had been activated as she fell down it again.

Clank and Drek both landed with a loud thud on the hard rocky ground. Clank's arm flew out of its socket, poking Drek in his remaining organic eye. Clank looked up and saw that they were in some virtual space, on top of a floating asteroid with low gravity.

"I created you," gasped Drek, clutching his organic heart, which began to fail after the hard landing.

"Wrong," affirmed Clank, walking back over to his disconnected arm. "Orvus created me." Clank was about to pass Drek and grabbed his arm when Drek pulled out a gigantic ruby situated on stick, barring his progress.

"I always hated the truth!" yelled Drek, and the ruby fired a red laser at Clank, pushing him into another asteroid. Drek stood up and fired another blast at Clank, causing an explosion in the side of the asteroid, and left Clank squashed inside a hole ripped in the meteor.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Clank, as he tried to push himself out of the asteroid.

"I'm trigger happy!" said Drek as he fired the ruby again. Clank pulled himself out of the hole and jumped out just before the laser could blast him deeper. He quickly jumped and due to the low gravity managed to get over to the other asteroid and kick Drek in the head.

"Damn you!" yelled Drek as the ruby flew out of his hand. Clank reached his hand out at the same time as Drek and they both caught each end of the ruby, turning the battle into a tug of war.

Clank pulled as hard as he could, but then deliberately let go when he looked at the ground behind him. "Finally, it's time to die," sneered Drek.

"I'm afraid it's the other way around," said Clank as Drek fired another laser. Clank picked up a mirror next to him and held it in front of him. The laser hit and was directed back to Drek, hitting him square in his organic chest.

"AHHHHHH!" he yelled as the laser burned through his chest and disintegrated his heart. The laser finally went straight through his body and Drek's eyes rolled to back of his head, and his cyborg body fell to the asteroid ground, dead.

The soil under Clank pushed away, revealing a hole beneath his body, and he shared the same fate as Talwyn.  
Sasha punched the robotic menace as they plunged into the depths of the unknown. Her hand cracked as she hit the metal face of Dr. Nefarious. As Dr. Nefarious prepared to lunge at her, they both landed on the surprisingly soft ground.

Sasha could feel an icy chill in her mouth, and soon realised that she had snow in her mouth. She sat up and looked for Nefarious, and then spotted Lawrence pushing Nefarious off the snowy mountain. She thought that Lawrence had betrayed Nefarious, but then saw him pick up a pair of skis to hide from Sasha.

"Hey!" she yelled at she stood up and tackled Lawrence, seeing the figure of Nefarious skiing off into the shadows. She grabbed the skis out of his hands, and put them on her feet. She slid off the mountain, realising that she had never skied before.

"Oh god…ahh!" she exclaimed as she lost her balance and fell over before picking up any real speed. She brushed the snow off her clothes and took off again, a little more confident. She slid down and steered clear of the initial early signs of trees, wondering how far Nefarious was in front of her.

"Urrrhhhh….WOOHOO!" exclaimed Sasha as her hair and uniform fought against the wind resistance. The numbers of trees multiply until she felt like she was in a forest, turning left and right every second. She heard a thud, and sound of skis breaking.

Up ahead, she saw Nefarious' figure squashed up against the trunk of a tree. She turned until she was beside that tree and grabbed the former organism. The force of Nefarious' weight behind her caused her to fall off her skis, and Nefarious punched her as they slid down.

"You!" Sasha yelled as she felt her body tumble and a tooth fall out from where Nefarious punched her. Sasha and Nefarious tumbled together in a growing snowball of white mixed the red of the Sasha's tooth bleeding.

"Hahahahaha!" yelled Nefarious, punching Sasha in the belly, making her cough up blood. Sasha regained her concentration, and remembered that when Nefarious got angry, he froze up.

"Lawrence wants to be in a gay relationship with you!" she yelled quickly, tasting the blood swimming in her mouth.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" yelled Nefarious until he turned stiff and a radio transmission played.

"Janice, I have something to confess," said the star Lance on the radio. "I've been seeing another woman. I love her more than you."

"But…how can you love someone more than me?" Janice asked, while crying.

"Well, she is my mother, after all," said Lance, as Sasha jumped out of the snowball and grabbed the branch of one of the trees. She started laughing at the line as she watched the frozen Nefarious plummet down the mountain to his eventual death.

Sasha hung with her belly-button exposed, and witnessed a trapdoor open below her. Somehow, something released her grip of the branch and she fell, not unlike Clank, Ratchet and Talwyn.

Qwark fell very shortly until he and Otto were blown away by an extremely powerful gust, picking them up and landing them on clouds. "I thought you were my father. How did you get of Skrunch's body?"

"I guess my body couldn't take the memories of you changing Skrunch's underwear," sneered Otto.

"Shut up! It's not my fault that I was raised by monkeys!" yelled Qwark.

"I'm sorry, but you were raised by your parents. I can see how you were misunderstood."

"THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF YOU!" yelled Qwark, leaping from the cloud to attack Otto, but a gust of powerful wind blew him back onto a cloud. He tumbled backwards, and grabbed the edge of the cloud, surprised that he was able to grab onto fluff.

"Haha!" yelled Otto as he rode the wind over to Qwark's cloud and landed just in front of his hands hanging off the edge of the cloud. Before Otto had a chance, Qwark used the cloud and his hands as a pivot and flipped upwards, kicking Otto back.

The wind changed once again and Otto was blown off the cloud. Qwark landed on the cloud after kicking Otto, and he tried grabbing onto the edge of the cloud as he hated to moments ago, but found his fingers rapidly slipping.

As the force of the gust proved too strong, he fell onto to Otto who lay on the second cloud, where the wind wasn't strong enough to push them off the cloud. Abnormally rapid, the wind gust pushed upwards, defeating gravity as Qwark and Otto were took off their backs and catapulted up into the blank windy endless sky. Qwark and Otto screamed as they were pushed up, but Qwark saw white for a brief moment and felt the wind die down. He landed on the cloud, realising what the white he saw was.

"Help me," he heard a weak voice. Qwark turned his head to the right and saw Otto's hands hanging off the edge. Qwark reached his hand out to help him, but then hesitated, contemplating whether he should save a man who once posed as his father and then tried to kill him and his friends.

"Help me," Otto repeated. Qwark looked over the edge of the cloud, gazing into Otto's scared eyes. He wondered if Otto wanted to redeem himself, but thought upon the things he had done and said to Qwark.

He had insulted Skrunch just recently, and even insulted Qwark's parents, and soon hoped that he had stayed in Skrunch's body. He finally made his choice, knowing that the man was too dangerous to be kept alive, as he managed to escape Skrunch's body.

Qwark stood up, his antenna blowing forwards, and walked to the fearful Otto, whose robe blew backwards. Qwark sneered at Otto and quickly stamped both of Otto's hands. He looked down at the wide eyes of Otto as he plummeted out of sight. The wind suddenly threw Qwark off balance and he fell off the cloud, but a trapdoor opened in the air just below him and he fell through with no choice.

Tehctar restarted the engines of the Unipose as he stared into the exact same eyes of Master, and slammed the clutch as far it could go. Ignoring the danger of crashing into the Backup Base, he skimmed skillfully over the platform and rammed into Master's goopy body, forcing him through the window of the cockpit.

Tehctar lost control of the steering wheel as he was thrown onto the console, and the Unipose skidded nose-first along the platform, similar to what happened in the Scarzare's base, but with less damage inflicted due to the lack of walls or obstacles.

Master's body splattered on the floor of the cockpit, and slid under the console. Anything that wasn't held down in the cockpit began to float slowly, as the surface of the Backup Base had a weak gravitational pull.

Tehctar, made his way off the console and onto the Backup Base through the hole the window, and although the oxygen field was shut down in the crash, he was having no trouble breathing due to his species' "oxygen". Master transformed into a breed of snail, and slinked up and over the console, down through the same broken window.

Tehctar made a watchful eye as the snail slid out onto the platform, leaving a gooey slime in its tracks. Tehctar transformed into himself, except with a pair of legs and stomped on the snail. Pain shot up through his leg and caused him to lose his balance, falling onto the ground.

The snail was left completely intact and transformed again into Master with a magenta glow. "Did I forget to mention I was a metallic snail?" Tehctar sneered at Master and shifted into the form of a hawk, and then began to fly away.

"Oh, no you don't!" yelled Master who then altered himself into a dark blue fighter, and began to chase after Tehctar.

Just as Master's fighter wing was about to clip Tehctar's bird wing, Tehctar malformed once again, this time into a bright yellow battleship that overpowered Master's in defence and size, but was beaten in speed.

Master circled Tehctar, avoiding all the blasts of fire that originated from the many cannons situated around the box-like ship. Tehctar watched as Master rapidly circled him and with precise timing, fired the engines to the max and boosted slowly into Master's circle.

"No!" yelled Master as his speed caused his downfall as he plummeted into the bright yellow boxy battleship, leaving a huge dent inside it. The remains of the fighter laid crumpled, hanging on the edge of the dent. Tehctar had thought he had won, but began to grind his teeth when Master transformed into a pterodactyl and began to fly back towards the platform. Slowly, the boxy star fighter began to turn towards the platform, but only faced it when the pterodactyl landed.

Master stared at the battle cruiser that was now Tehctar, not moving an inch, just as Tehctar hoped. At the front of the ship, two lights popped out of the hull, blinding Master with a hot bright beam. Master found his eyes burning and turned away, but while doing this charged up a ball of energy in-between his pterodactyl hands.

"Your powers are too hot to handle!" yelled Master as he fired the purple ball through the beam of blinding light, forcing him to stare into it, burning his eyes to a crisp. As the battle cruiser began to turn away, the energy ball hit it and sent it on a collision course towards the Backup Base where Master laid with his eyelids closed.

Just before the battleship made contact, Tehctar transformed again and turned into a giant boulder that rolled along the platform towards Master. Although his eyelids were shut, Master could hear the boulder getting nearer and nearer until the sound was too close for comfort. He rolled over and the boulder rolled beside him, over the other edge.

Master opened his eyes, but could only see black and felt the sense of hydrogen filling an empty space where his eyes should be. "Oh crap, my eyes are gone!" he thought relatively calmly. "…DAMN IT! I was this close! But…I can still win without my eyesight."

Tehctar continued rolling as the weak gravity took its toll and pulled him towards the edge of the Backup Base. He quickly transformed into a floatation boot and slowly gravitated up towards Master.

As Tehctar rose above the horizon, he changed forms back into his original blob form, and although Master could not see this, he transformed back into his blob form too. As Master balanced himself back up, Tehctar gazed into the black holes that once situated Master's eyes, and cringed, trying not to vomit.

Tehctar relinquished the thought of the melting eyeballs and tackled Master, just as a trapdoor opened up beneath them both.

Ratchet, Talwyn, Clank, Sasha and Qwark all lay injured on the floor of a lime-green room, full of gadgets nearby the walls, leaving plenty of open space in the middle. A gigantic door stood behind the group all bunched together in a pile of broken soldiers, and a small rise in the floor of two steps that stretched across the room sat in front of them.

On that rise in the surface, a navigation system protruded that looked like a wider and shorter medieval staff, near an oddly-shaped window, proving that the Backup Base was capable of movement. In front of that navigation system was where the trapdoor released Tehctar and Master onto.

Sasha stared at the two quarrelling blobs, but was distracted when she saw something zoom past the circle, eye-ball window. Almost immediately, something else zoomed by, along with a shower of blaster fire behind it. More slowly, a whole group of (what Sasha was eventually able to make out) fighter ships, and Sasha recognised that it was the commander's squadron.

"The battle must have shifted over here…" she thought, when she suddenly turned her attention back to the brawl between Tehctar and Master. She just caught seeing Ratchet throw his Windy Shield over to Tehctar as Master jumped back and prepared to fire an energy beam.

Tehctar pushed part of his blobby body outwards so it was like an arm, and grew fingers to catch it, and he then placed the Windy Shield on his wrist. He activated one just as Master fired the energy beam, but the wind caught and threw the beam away.

Master slowly walked up to Tehctar, and slowly began to plunge through the Windy Shield. Even though most of his body was torn off and carried away from the shield, his anatomy allowed him to reform almost immediately and this led to his body slowly making its way through and all the splattered bits just floated back to the main core.

"Oh my god…" Talwyn muttered as they watched in awe and couldn't help because of being too weak from the falls. Master too formed a hand and ripped the Windy Shield off Tehctar's improvised arm and turned the Windy Shield upon the Uniposers, blowing them out the open door.

Before they could realise what was happening, Master threw the device at the lock on the door, locking the door but breaking both the lock button and the Windy Shield. The Uniposers laid all piled up on the back of another door directly opposite the one they just came out, with only Ratchet and Tehctar on the walls.

"Okay, just in case this door opens, who knows what is in it?" asked Clank, contemplating what they could face.

"Oh, well when I was firing the Windy Shield, there was a blueprint of this floor that I briefly looked at, and I think the room behind us is…the gravitational pull room," said Tehctar. Talwyn rested for a moment until she realised what that meant.

"Gravitation pull…?" she asked, as the door behind them suddenly opened up, and Talwyn, Clank, Qwark and Sasha were suddenly pulled out of the room towards the gravity machine in the center of the plus-shaped room.

Ratchet and Tehctar could feel the pull, but were both saved by the wall behind them, which thankfully didn't open up. "Ratchet!" Tehctar yelled. "I think it's time I come clean. I'm not going to say why yet, but…this blob form isn't really my true identity."

Ratchet's eyes suddenly burst open. "What?" he yelled.

"I've been using an advanced form of the Hologuise, which allows me to transform into anything!" Tehctar screamed. "I'm not going to say outright who I really am, but there's one word that you know that will reveal to you who I am."

"And what word is that?" Ratchet hollered at the top of his lungs.

"BALLOON-O-GRAM!"

Ratchet thought for a second, and widened his eyes slowly when he figured the whole story out. He looked at Tehctar smiling, and then looked into the room behind him. Gazing back forward, he laughed, and then threw himself into the gravitational pull room.

"Ratchet, wait!" Tehctar yelled as he watched Ratchet get sucked in. "I'll never understand that Lombax…" he muttered as he jumped into the room as well.

The gravity core was placed inside a metal square casing that sat on a large square pole (almost as big as the casing itself) protruding from the ground. Ratchet felt the adrenaline as he ripped through the oxygen, feeling it brush his face, until a sharp pain cracked through his back as he collided with the casing. Tehctar followed him and squashed Ratchet with his blobby body.

"Ghhmmmt hmmff mffh!" muffled Ratchet. Tehctar moved over to the side with difficulty.

"What?" he asked.

"Thank you," said Ratchet, not answering his question and feeling his own sore back. He looked around and saw that the Uniposers had disappeared, and also found three more doors from each point of the plus-shape.

"Do you think they were captured?" asked Ratchet to Tehctar, without even looking at him. Tehctar looked around, eventually spotting the object he looked for. Turning Ratchet's head around, he pointed at a steel beam poking out of wall diagonally from him.

"Maybe they were just smart." Ratchet smiled, and looked to same place on the opposite side of the room, and found the same thing.

"But which one did they go through?" he asked rhetorically, alarming Tehctar that there were two of them.

"Only one way to find out," Tehctar answered, picking up Ratchet and throwing him towards the beam closest to Ratchet, while he shot his hand out and grabbed the other one. Before Ratchet could get pulled back, he grasped the beam both of his hands, and slowly climbed it as if he was in a gym class, climbing the rope.

Tehctar, on the other hand, traversed the beam with ease, pulling himself across and reaching the door while Ratchet had barely moved. He slid his blobby malleable hands under the door, and lifted it up just enough that he could quickly slide under and ducked inside.

Forming back to his normal height, he saw Sasha and Talwyn standing by some profiles of the Uniposers, looking at the disturbance with the door. "Tehctar, what's going on?" asked Sasha, not surprised to see him. "Your profile says that Master knows your true identity, but the rest of the VA doesn't. Are you telling me that this…thing isn't your true identity?"

"I actually wanted to tell you who I really am, but I don't feel up to actually saying it. So…has Ratchet ever told you about his adventure in the Bogon Galaxy, against the Protopets?" Tehctar watched hopefully, and was glad to see them both nod. "So…yeah." Talwyn thought for a second, and quickly caught onto what Tehctar was saying.

"Oh…my…god," she spoke as Tehctar pushed a hidden Hologuise into view, looking more advanced than the one Ratchet used, and swiftly pulled it off the body, holding it high. Static cut across the blob, and after that Tehctar ceased to exist, leaving Angela Cross behind.

After many minutes, Ratchet finally reached the door, and threw his wrench at the lock softly, so that it opened the door but didn't destroy it. As he caught the wrench again, he climbed into the doorway as Qwark and Clank were pulled toward him, so he quickly tapped the button lock again and the three were sucked into the door as it closed.

They all sighed as they rest up against the door, as close as close can be to being sucked out. "What are you doing following us, Ratchet?" asked Qwark. "You should be finishing off Master!"

"Yeah, but I need to tell guys something," Ratchet said slowly.

"Well, what is it?" asked Clank after a moment of silence.

"Tehctar hasn't shown us his true form." Ratchet heard both Qwark and Clank making confused noises. "Tehctar gave me a hint as to who he is that only Ratchet would understand. That hint is: Balloon-o-gram."

Clank clicked immediately. "Ohhhh…." he said while Qwark remained clueless.

"Protopets," Ratchet said to him.

"Ohhhh…." remarked Qwark as well.

"Come on, let's find Angela!" yelled Ratchet, running to the door to his left, surprised that the gravitational pull had changed in this room.

"Oh, I thought it was Fizzwidget," commented Qwark.

"We should be able to get back to the navigation room this way," said Ratchet, ignoring Qwark.

The trio came out into the green hallway that they were pushed into by Master, and they thankfully found that the door had closed where they were sucked in by the gravitational pull. Seeing that the door back to the navigation room was permanently locked, they quickly sped past the door to the gravitation room, in case it opened again.

"Come on, Angela, where are you?" Ratchet asked to no-one in particular, waiting in front of a door at the end of the hallway. Impatiently, he ran through the door and headed through the left one, and spotted Angela sitting in a triangle with Sasha and Talwyn, telling them about her story.

"Talwyn, about your father, he wants to come back to you, but he's afraid that he disappointed you when he disappeared," said Angela, not realising that Ratchet was there.

"I'd never be disappointed by him!" boomed Talwyn, ignoring Ratchet and the others as they joined in the little group.

"He wants to find you, but doesn't know where you are anymore. Anyway, Max was helping me with my research when I moved to Polaris to increase the amount of technology I was using. That's when I created Master."

"Master started off as an experiment for a new line of Megacorp products, shape-shifting creatures that could transform into anything, and had incredible strength. He was a prototype, and things seemed to be going fine for a few days, until the same thing happened to him as it did with the Protopets."

"He trashed the lab, and knocked me out before I could prevent him from escaping, and he used my cloning technology that I was going to use on him to create the Scarzare. The bandits aren't real! I just made them so I didn't have to reveal my identity, because after the Master fiasco, Megacorp was taken over by him and he put a price on my head."

"He somehow found out that I was disguised as a Cazarean boy, and sent the Scarzare after me. He knew that under both of my guises that none of the bounty hunters or people looking out for me would find and capture me. When the Scarzare failed, he knew that he'd have to take me out himself."

"Remember what happened to Sasha2? She killed her source, and therefore she died. It was like what happened with the Protopet. Tame the original, tame the clones. Kill the original, kill the clones. Technically, Sasha2 was a clone of the Scarzare, it's just the genetic mutation that caused her to take the appearance of one of his sperm. You may throw up now."

"But where did that experimented clone of yours come from, when the battle begun?" asked Sasha as Ratchet laughed from what Angela said.

"Oh, that. I was afraid they unleashed that. Ratchet, Talwyn, Clank all went into some blank room when they wanted to see the Backup Base, while I was actually taken there. I woke up on a table with a field around me that prevented me from transforming, and although I managed to break that field, they had already cloned, experimented and unleashed a monster from me."

"So what are we going to do about Master?" asked Clank spontaneously.

"I have had many plans, but now that none of them will work, I'll have to use my last resort," said Angela looking at Ratchet. "Ratchet, will you come with me to speak in private?" He and Angela stood up and walked into the door that Ratchet came from, and made sure that the door was securely shut.

"So what do you want me to do?" he asked Angela, soon realising that she was crying.

Five minutes later, the door opened for the other Uniposers and Ratchet and Angela walked out, having no expression on their faces. Everyone waited for Ratchet to say something, but wished they didn't when he finally spoke.

"Everyone get to the Unipose," he grimly spoke, pulling out a belt of dynamite from behind his back, in which proceeded to wrap around his torso. "I'll take Master with me."

"Ratchet, what are you-" began Sasha before Ratchet gravely cut her off.

"Angela," he said, and the Lombax beside him nodded and began to push the Uniposers away from Ratchet as Sasha tried to get close to him.

"Ratchet, don't do this! PLEASE!" yelled Talwyn, close to tears, but could not find them due to the shock of his sacrifice. Talwyn grasped the last of moments with Ratchet, and just stared as Angela pushed them into the next room, watching as the door began to block her vision of the Lombax she loved, until he disappeared from view.

"We need to find an elevator to get out of here," said Angela, letting go of the group.

"I got to get back to Ratchet!" yelled Clank, running past Angela back to the door.

"No, you won't!" she yelled, pulling out a taser and zapping Clank, knocking him clean out.

"What's wrong with you?" yelled Sasha. "You let Ratchet kill himself, and now you're trying to stop us from spending some last moments with him! You're not a friend…you're a MONSTER!"

Angela remained quiet for a few seconds. "It's our last resort, and we need it to go perfectly," she said more calmly than before. "It's just…not as bad as you think. I can't say why, but do not disturb or talk to Ratchet, while this happens. Let's go."

All at different times, the Uniposers eventually left the door and began to run after Angela, who was scrambling through rooms, trying to find an elevator. Eventually she found one that was in the room on the northern tip of the gravitation room, the only door they didn't go through.

"Come on," she yelled, not waiting a moment for the Uniposers to catch up. She hopped into the elevator and held the door open for the others, until they were all inside. She was amazed at the amount of buttons on the side as she closed the door.

"Ummmm…" said Angela, unintentionally prompting Sasha to press the top button. Angela held her mouth open to Sasha, wondering why she was so hasty. The top one could lead to anywhere, and she couldn't read any of the alien language that was marked on each button.

"It's our best bet," shrugged Sasha, as the elevator motor started running and whirring sound flooded the small compartment. Unexpectedly, the Uniposers were thrown down to the floor as the elevator fired up through the shaft at what seemed like light speed. As unexpectedly as it started, when the Uniposers finally clambered back up, the elevator stopped, and they were thrown to the ceiling, whacking their heads hard on it.

The Uniposers all rubbed their heads as they got up from the ground they landed on after their bodies caught up with them. Angela was the closest to the door, and watched as it opened to the platform that she landed the Unipose on, and then realised what had happened.

She had crashed it, just as she had done at the Scarzare's base. But, the bottom wings were probably designed to cushion the landing, that's why only a little bit of the cockpit hull was damaged along with the wings. The engines and inside were completely protected.

The Unipose sat in front of the door of the elevator, its nose touching the ground, barely damaged unlike the hangar landing in the Scarzare's base. "Come on," Angela hollered, running to the damaged ship and busting open the door. "We gotta hurry!"

She pushed all of the Uniposers one by one in the cockpit, and then threw herself in, shutting the door behind her. "What are we going to do about that clone?" asked Clank.

"Don't worry," Angela said. "I have a plan that I didn't tell Ratchet." She jumped in the pilot's seat which swivelled slightly with her landing, and roared up the engines, keeping them firing low, so they didn't get any push.

"What are you doing that for?" asked Qwark, but his question was answered as Angela lifted the nose up slowly and then pushed the throttle to the max. The Unipose shot off as if a crazy person was piloting it.

The giant experimented clone of Angela floated around the Backup Base, firing at the raging space battle. It had lured the ship here to its base to trap them, and let reinforcements come quickly. The Unipose sped off straight towards that gigantic figure.

"Listen, this is Sasha of the Unipose. I am telling everybody to go home. The battle is coming to an end and I need every remaining force to be safe. I will make sure you will be valiantly rewarded for your efforts, and congratulate yourself for this soon to be victory. If you would like to watch the finale, get to a safe distance and enjoy the fireworks," Sasha spoke into the transceiver.

"Do you really think a harmless belt of dynamite is going to blow up the entire Backup Base?" asked Master to Ratchet, standing face to face in the navigation room. Ratchet remained quiet, staring blankly at the window, and smiled when he saw the grey shape of the Unipose whizz past.

"What you don't realise, is that Angela gave me "hypermite", which is an experimental Megacorp explosive that has the power of a supernova. This entire base will be wiped out from the sky, including your little dead friends," said Ratchet evilly.

"I didn't need those pets!" yelled Master, seemingly hurt by the deaths of the remaining VA members. "So is this it, then? My demise? Although the famous hero Ratchet will be gone as well? Won't that mean you were defeated?"

"Oh, Ratchet will be quite safe," said Ratchet in third-person, not caring about his death. "Only someone much more hated will be dying tonight, but that doesn't mean only one person."

"WHAT?" yelled Master, as Ratchet pulled out a pen connected to the hypermite, and flipped off the lid, revealing a button. As this happened, the Unipose caught the Angela clone's attention and flew towards the grey Backup Base, camouflaging with the colour of the Unipose.

As the ship slipped away and began to fly out of the blast radius, the stupid Angela clone grabbed onto the Backup Base, thinking that the Unipose would be there somewhere. The rumble startled Ratchet and Master, as the clone would be caught in the radius, but didn't prevent him from holding his thumb over the button.

"Time to die," he said, smiling, and Master's eyes opened as far as they could as he pressed the button. As the Unipose came to a safe distance and watched the Backup Base, Master opened his mouth for the last time.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


	25. Epilogue

_Rise of the Uniposers_

_Escaping from the blank grey room with the help of Tehctar, Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank regroup with the Uniposers and set off to the Backup Base while the battle with Angela rages on. The Uniposers arrive at the base as Angela is revealed to be a clone of her instead. They are all separated and forced to fight a member of the VA, with every member except Master being defeated and killed. The melee battle between Tehctar and Master rages on and they are moved down to the navigation room, where the others end up. After Master forces them to flee, Tehctar reveals himself to be Angela Cross, who reveals a plan as a last resort. Following the plan, Ratchet walks back into the navigation room with hypermite strapped around him. As the Uniposers escape and lure Angela's clone to grab the Backup Base, Ratchet activates the hypermite…_

_Chapter 25: Epilogue_

The Unipose drifted away, occasionally clinking some of the small debris from the Backup Base that had traveled and crossed paths with them. The explosion earlier was spectacular, but no-one in the Unipose was excited because of Ratchet's sacrifice.

Talwyn and Sasha sat huddled together on the sofa, both in shock over what Ratchet had done for the sake of the universe. Angela walked in after letting Clank take the helm, wanting to comfort her friends.

"Listen, it's not that bad that Ratchet sacrificed himself…" muttered Angela, causing Talwyn and Sasha to look up at her angrily.

"CAN YOU HEAR YOURSELF?" exploded Sasha. "RATCHET WAS EVERYTHING TO ME!"

Angela ignored the two, knowing that they were uncontrollable. She grabbed a datapad out of her belt and tapped a few buttons, looking to see how far they had come. "Okay, I think it's safe now."

"Wha…?" Sasha blubbered as Angela revealed an advanced Hologuise from her belt. She tapped it once and Sasha and Talwyn watched in awe as yellow streams of energy began to fly around her body, until she was no longer visible.

"Angela?" asked Talwyn as the energy streams began to disappear and firstly revealed a yellow furry ear that wiggled around. Secondly, spots of yellow and brown fur began to appear, and Talwyn knew that it was him when the famous wrench came into view.

"Ratchet!" Talwyn yelled, who then jumped up and ran through the disintegrating streams and hugged the man she loved.

"They did the ol' switcheroo," muttered Sasha, remembering her father olden day terms. She realised that Angela had used Hologuises to switch roles with Ratchet, meaning that she was killed in the explosion while he was safe and sound in the Unipose. "Ratchet!"

Sasha hopped up as well and joined the hug as they were reunited with Ratchet. She ignored the wrinkles and baggy eyes from the shock and tears as she yelled out to the cockpit to bring everyone in to reunite with Ratchet.

After everyone had caught up with Ratchet, along with a few drinks, everyone returned to the cockpit after the excitement had died down. "So, where to?" Ratchet asked.

"How about my apartment in Megapolis?" asked Clank.

"I haven't seen that place," said Sasha. "And I don't think Talwyn has either."

As Talwyn nodded, Ratchet spoke. "Qwark has seen it though, when we first defeated Otto Destruct."

"Okay, Clank's apartment, it is," said Talwyn, much happier that Ratchet was alive, although sad that Angela was dead. Sasha took one last look at the planets and nebulae of Woldgon Galaxy, before the warp drive took them away.

"So what are you going to do about this ship?" asked Talwyn as they arrived in the Bogon Galaxy, bringing a couple of drinks for Ratchet, Qwark and Sasha.

"I don't know," responded Ratchet. "Just probably gonna give it back to Arv, he was the one who gave it to Tehctar in the first place."

"Arv," thought Sasha. "He's probably unaware about Tehctar's identity, and thinks that he's just a kid. Now that I think about it, he looked familiar in his Cazarean form."

"We're at Endako already?" asked Ratchet to Sasha, who had been mindlessly piloting the ship and was distracted by Ratchet's question. She looked out the windscreen, stretching, and saw that Endako was already coming into view to the left side.

"Oh yeah," she said, prompting her to angle the Unipose to the left and aiming straight at Megapolis, clearly visible on the surface of the astronomical body. There were other cities in view as well, but Megapolis was clearly the biggest.

"So, what are you guys going to do after we calm down after this adventure?" asked Sasha to the whole crew. Everyone wanted to speak at once, but Sasha calmed them down. "One at a time! Talwyn, you first."

"Well, I know what I'm going to do," began Talwyn. "Regroup with Cronk and Zephyr, and then find my father. He's out there somewhere, wanting me to find him, waiting for me. I know I have to find him, if I'm ever going to be happy."

Everyone nodded slowly, admiring her bravery. "Okay, Qwark, you next," said Sasha.

"My normal daily routine. Exercise with Helga in the morning, and saving the galaxy during the day, and gambling at the Maktar Casino at night. I also think that I'm getting my own Holo-vision show."

"Meh…" everyone else said, disgusted by Qwark's selfishness. "Sasha, you should go next," said Talwyn before she could speak.

"Ohh," replied Sasha, shocked. "Well, I don't really know. I'll help my father get re-elected and return to the Starship Phoenix, helping to keep the Solana Galaxy in order." Ratchet smiled, remembering back when he on the Starship Phoenix, a part of the Q-Force. "That just leaves Ratchet and Clank."

"Well, I think we're just going to keep adventuring," said Ratchet, smiling as they touched down on Megapolis. As they walked away from the Unipose, Ratchet looked back and noticed something. "Ahh, we're gonna have to keep Aphelion though, unfortunately."

"WHAT?" she exclaimed, leaving Ratchet in tears of laughter. They all stepped on the Translocator and waited for it to whisk them away. Talwyn was the first to appeared at the door of Clank's apartment, and walked in immediately, looking at the place that had been given to Clank by Abercrombie Fizzwidget.

"She's a great place, isn't she?" asked Ratchet as soon as everyone had been translocated. "She got a VG-9000 that the President gave me, Sheep Invaders, a Swingshot course out the back and shower and bedroom just over there."

"Wow," said Sasha. "It's even better than I remember when I came when you got angry." Ratchet rolled his eyes quickly, trying to forget about it.

"Make yourselves at home," he said, sitting Sasha and Talwyn down, as Qwark began to raid the fridge. Clank checked out the apartment, wondering if his maid had left it in good shape. Ratchet grabbed the VG-9000 controller and passed it to Sasha, asking her without words if she wanted to play.

"Oh, sure. I haven't played this in a while," she said, wondering what game Ratchet was going to put in. She facepalmed when she saw that Ratchet had grabbed Presidential Politics Adventures, a horrible mediocre game in which the Galactic President starred in.

"…No," stated Sasha, causing Ratchet to burst out into laughter. "How about…Al's Robotic Rampage? I hear that's an action/puzzle game."

"Good idea," said Talwyn.

"Problem," said Ratchet, making Sasha and Talwyn turn their heads. "I don't have the game." Ratchet wished he had never said that, because he found himself in a downtown Megapolis games store, where thankfully there were plenty of copies as it was a game that had just came out and was 80 bolts. Thankfully, due to Ratchet's adventures, he had plenty to spend, so he decided to get four more copies for Sasha, Talwyn, Clank and Qwark.

"Oh, you're back quickly," said Talwyn, noticing that Ratchet was back while reading a novel.

"I had plenty of money, so here," he said as he threw copies towards Talwyn, Sasha and Clank, but Qwark wasn't there. "Hey, where's Qwark?"

"Oh, he said that he should get back to Metropolis, so he left quickly," Talwyn answered.

"Aww, then I'll just mail him his copy." Ratchet placed Al's Robotic Rampage into the VG-9000, turned it on and sat down next to Sasha, who still had the controller in her hands.

"Let's play then," said Sasha. Immediately, the first level popped up, and Sasha was playing as Al, who had a flamethrower weapon in his hand and had to destroy haywire robots. Sasha was doing on the first level, until the ambush at the end, where she was electrocuted to death by the robots. Ratchet had to help her then by surviving the ambush himself.

Talwyn decided to have a go at the second level, and they kept playing until it was time for Sasha to home to her father. "Listen, I better get going now, but before I do, I have to ask something. Ratchet, who do you choose?"

Ratchet wondered what she was talking about for a minute until he realised that she was asking whether he chooses Talwyn or Sasha. "I choose…neither of you. When I saw her once again, I realised…I was truly in love with Angela after all."

"Ohhh…that's okay, Ratchet, since because of your choice Talwyn and I won't be fighting, will we?" asked Sasha, responded with a nod by Talwyn. "Anyway, I better head off. See ya all around." She waved and stepped on the translocator, before disappearing from sight.

Ratchet smiled, wondering when he would see Sasha next, and passed the controller over to Talwyn. Clank, meanwhile, had taken a shower, and came out with two towels, one wrapped around his waist and one around his head.

"So, Talwyn, when are you gonna start searching for your father?" he asked.

"Ohhh, I have Cronk and Zephyr coming to pick me up soon, so I guess I'll go then," responded Talwyn, thinking that Clank didn't want her here.

"Well, just to let you know, there have been rumours of man by the name of Apex Omega around Eudora, Rilgar area in the Solana Galaxy."

"Why would I want to know that?" Talwyn asked.

"Because Apex Omega is an anagram of Max Apogee," said Clank.

Talwyn's mouth dropped open, as a large ship coasted by the door of Clank's apartment and stopped as their door met Clank's. It opened and Cronk and Zephyr appeared in the doorway, attracting Talwyn's attention. "You ready, Talwyn?" Zephyr yelled over the roar of the engine.

"See ya," said Talwyn, looking back at Ratchet, kissing him one final time, before hopping off the couch and jumping out of Clank's apartment and missing the doorway. Cronk grabbed Talwyn's hand and pulled her up, before closing the door and setting off again.

Ratchet sighed, smiling, seeing that only Clank was left with him. "So, you want to give the Unipose back to Arv?"

"Yeah, I guess. I've got nothing else to do," said Clank, heading towards the translocator already. Ratchet stood up and grabbed a comic book to read on the way back to Lavarti. Once they had reached the Unipose, and were ready to take off, Ratchet spotted Sasha running towards.

"Sasha?" asked Ratchet, walking out of the Unipose. "What are you doing?" Sasha stopped in front of Ratchet and panted heavily.

"I forgot to give something," she said, before smooching Ratchet on the lips, reaching her tongue into his mouth. She let go after many seconds, and without saying a thing, turned and ran back to wherever she was going.

"Heh," laughed Ratchet, before walking back up into the Unipose, where Clank had taken the helm, and began to take off as Ratchet was walking up the stairs. The roaring engine didn't deter Ratchet, and he closed the door behind him as he felt the wind picking up and his fur getting cold.

"Activate the grav-o-metric warp drive once again as soon as we leave Endako," Ratchet said to Clank, as he sat down in the left co-pilot's seat and began to read the comic book he had picked up, The Adventures of Captain Starshield. As he read this, Clank flew out of Endako into wide open space.

"Activating the grav-o-metric warp drive," said Clank, pulling down the lever that activated it. He waited a few seconds for it to kick in, but even after twenty seconds, they were still flying in the Bogon Galaxy.  
"What's going on?" asked Ratchet, who had noticed this dilemma.

"I'm not sure," said Clank. "Ratchet, go down to the engine room and check if the warp drive is working."

"Okay," said Ratchet, placing the comic book under his armpit. "If it's not, we could always try using a Warp Pad." Clank facepalmed as Ratchet smirked, knowing that the Warp Pad was a useless item to own.

Ratchet walked through the weapons room, seeing that all the weapons were in place, before striding into the dining room and opening the rusty wooden trapdoor that was growing cobwebs due to it not being opened for so long.

Ratchet peered in, noticing that the engines had been running on their own for so long, unless Angela/Tehctar had fed them some more coal. That's when he realised how old the ship was. Most ships in the present day used energised crystallite, but this one was running on coal, a method of fuel that hadn't been used for over thirty years.

"Arv's been around that long?" he asked to himself, before sliding down the ladder and looking at the grav-o-metric warp drive, which was also old because he had made it from Blargian scrap metal just before Nefarious attacked Veldin.

Ratchet opened the battery panel and saw that the huge battery had been placed in backwards. He then noticed a note taped to the side of it. He unfolded it and looked at what it said:

_Good times, huh? :P_

Clank wondered what was taking Ratchet so long, so he impatiently pulled at the lever to the grav-o-metric warp drive and was surprised to find that it worked. He quickly set the course to Lavarti into motion and the Unipose disappeared once again from the Bogon Galaxy.

Around eight minutes later, Ratchet stepped slowly into the cockpit. "Hey, Ratchet, where have you been?" asked Clank, hearing his footsteps and turning around. He was shocked to see his face red, panting, as if he had been exercising and wincing in pain as if his crotch was hurting.

"Check this out," Ratchet panted, holding up the paper note. Clank looked at it but was confused as to what it meant. "Don't you see? When we were separated on the Backup Base, Angela went to the grav-o-metric warp drive and put the battery in backwards, just like Qwark had done with the device Angela made for the Protopets."

"Ohhhh….what happened to you?" asked Clank, worryingly.

"Oh, nothing," Ratchet responded quickly and secretively.

"Well, in your 'absence' the Unipose had already arrived at Lavarti," said Clank, pointing at the lava sphere out the windshield. Arv and Sara stood behind the desk of their little shop, studying the square bulge in Sara's torso.

"I can't believe a little robotic baby is going to pop out there any time now," said Sara as she heard the roar of the Unipose come closer. She and Arv looked out their stall and saw the white ship beginning to land on the small landing pad just near them.

"Look who's back," said Arv, turning to look back at the medal he had received from the Universal Heroes Recognition Organisation. He expected that Tehctar, in his Cazarean form, would run out of the ship as happy as he could be.

Unfortunately, all he saw was Ratchet and Clank walking slowly and solemnly out of the Unipose, and immediately he knew that something. When Ratchet stopped in front of him, he and Sara wondered what he was going to say.

"It's all yours," stated Ratchet, throwing the key to the ignition towards Arv, who swiftly yanked it out of the air. Ratchet quickly smiled, and then turned to walk away.

"Wait, where's Tehctar?" Arv asked, almost human like.

"Tehctar's dead," said Ratchet immediately, causing Sara to involuntarily deactivate. "He wasn't a boy at all. He made us believe that he was a shape-changing blob afterwards, but turned out to actually be an old friend of mine…Angela Cross."

"I've heard of her," blubbered Arv. "She was one of the last remaining Lombaxes. I heard on the radio that she was still missing."

"Well, now she's dead," stated Ratchet boldly, walking off without saying goodbye. Clank waited by the door of the Unipose, and Arv watched as Ratchet stopped to talk at Clank, before they both walked into the Unipose.

A few minutes later, after Arv had "woken Sara up", a whirring noise caught his attention. He looked up just in time to see the claws on top of the Unipose retract, and Aphelion starting its engines. "Is the boy really dead?" asked Sara worriedly.

"It's a long story," answered Arv, not taking his eyes of Aphelion.

Ratchet suddenly became happy as he left the Unipose for the last time and took off from Lavarti. Clank was emotionless as he looked out the windshield and gazed at the small Vullard shop, and Aphelion flew through the atmosphere, leaving Lavarti.

"So where to now?" asked Ratchet, holding the steering wheel firmly.

"I don't know," said Clank softly. "Maybe we should just head back to the Bogon Galaxy for now."

"Okay," Ratchet responded quickly. He activated Aphelion's grav-o-metric warp drive and waited a few seconds until they disappeared once again.

Arriving in the Bogon Galaxy again, Clank immediately noticed to his right that there was a familiar ice planet. "Hey, Ratchet, look!"

Ratchet immediately darted his head around and remembered that the ice planet to the right was Grelbin, where Angela was living before she became Tehctar.

"Angela…" began Ratchet, without bothering to finish the sentence. Devoid of asking Clank, Ratchet jammed the wheel to the right sharply, heading towards Grelbin.

"Ratchet, what are you doing?" asked Clank, jumping around in his seat due to the speed they were travelling at.

"Maybe we can find out some information about Angela after the Protopet incident," yelled Ratchet, his eyes poised on the planet in front of him. He eventually slowed down as they entered the atmosphere, attracting the attention of the Yetis on the planet.

As Aphelion flew lower to land in front of Angela's house, the Yetis began to jump up and grab the ship. However, Aphelion was too fast for the stupid creatures who kept mistiming their jumps.

Aphelion landed just outside the house, where a few Yetis waited for them. Ratchet quickly ducked into the back where his trunk o' junk was situated, and he pulled out his Heavy Lancer for old time's sake.

Ratchet side-flipped out of Aphelion and fired madly at the three white Yetis that had already began to run towards Clank. Ratchet already took out two with only five bullets, but the third one had already arrived at Aphelion.

Clank didn't sit there and do nothing. He leaped out of Aphelion, shocking the Yeti who just stared at him. He soared through the air over the Yeti, and swiftly kicked him over Aphelion towards Ratchet, who took him out with one shot.

Ratchet sighed heavily and threw the Heavy Lancer back into Aphelion's cockpit. Clank followed him as he walked on the small bit of concrete in front of the door. Once he reached the forgotten doorway, he grasped the handle and pulled.

"What?" he whispered as the door wouldn't open. He pulled again, but nothing happened. While complaining with the rusted door, Clank pulled out a bottle and turned around. Ratchet heard a pouring sound, and was about to look at what Clank was doing.

"Don't turn around if you know what's good for you," said Clank boldly, and Ratchet quickly heeded his advice. Shortly after, the pouring stopped and Clank shoved a bottle of oil in his face. Ratchet bewilderedly took it and splashed it over the rust, and quickly opened the door successfully.

Ratchet peered in, gazing immediately at a red velvet couch sitting in front of an outdated Holo-vision. There were a few gadgets on display on the wall, and a desk sat next to a door to the left. Ratchet immediately walked towards that desk and found that it was full of papers and a few photos.

One of the photos showed Ratchet in his Carbonox Armor, with the helmet removed, alongside Angela and Clank in his apartment, just after defeating Qwark. The other one showed just Angela posing to the camera in her house.

"Heh," Ratchet laughed, not bothering to look at the papers, and he opened the door on the left. Once again, he peered in and saw a toilet and a shower, and immediately knew it was the bathroom. As he walked back out, he saw Clank and began to move his arm, until he whacked one of the photos of the desk.

"Oops!" yelled Ratchet as he bent down to save it, but was too late and the frame was immediately destroyed as it hit the ground. He moved some of the broken pieces away and checked to see if the photo was okay. However, he noticed that part of the photo was folded back.

"Huh?" said Ratchet as Clank joined his side. He folded the photo back fully and saw another Lombax by Angela's side. But it wasn't Ratchet. This one looked older and had a scruffy yellow beard, similar to the supposed Lombax on Lomtaber. However, Ratchet noticed that there was a resemblance between the two.

"A brother…?"

**THE END**


End file.
